Theory of Knowledge “We see and understand things not as they are but as we are” Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing. Name: Carlos Hill Quinta Candidate Number: 0650 035 Word count: 1,495 People are aware of reality just how they see it and how they live it. People perceive things how they understand it which sometimes can lead to conflicts and discussions on the fact that each person can perceive things differently. One way speaking people perceive and understand things by using their five senses: seeing; hearing; smelling; feeling and tasting.

People can have different perceptions of reality by means of drugs, diseases or some kind of sense deficient, such as blindness, deafness or muteness. These normally can affect people’s understandings of things and situations. People also understand things using intuition which generally means that they guess or estimate things as we look at them or imagine them. And this certainly reflects on what the claim says: where, we understand things not as they are but as we are. I will be discussing this claim in relation to two ways of knowing: perception and intuition.

I will consider reality in a way that people perceive it as they are and not how reality is present to us. I will do this giving an example of self experience in class and using facts of real life situations. People behave and decide to believe in what they want to believe considering their experiences, cultural baggage and beliefs. In terms of perception and how people perceive things around them, people with some sort of problems with their senses are not able to understand things how they are but as they think they are using their other senses to help them understand things their way.

For example a colour blind person will not understand the colours of objects as they are but as the person perceives it. It will affect the way the person identifies things and people. Also imagine a deaf person, will not understand things as they are, but as he understands to be, looking at gestures and mouth movement, which could probably lead to a wrong understanding of situations. Also considering Art as an area of knowledge, blind people will have to depend on normal citizens to help identify Art.

This will definitely be understanding things not as they are, but depending on the person who is trying to perceive it. Of course when people have some sort of problems with their senses they will still be able to perceive things correctly due to the fact that they can use their other senses to figure out what the things are. That can happen with a blind person, which leaves them to depend on others and on the other people’s perceptions. This of course happens to every person that has certain problems with their senses, but with ordinary people it turns out to be quite different.

Generally speaking people think that they perceive and understand things just how things are, and not how they are as a person, because people in general are objective and consider things just how they look. Therefore when you look at an object you can immediately identify what it is, what it is made of and for what’s it’s used. This is why we can see thing as they are and see the world as it is with no contradictions or disagreements in terms of identifying things.

It is said that it is society that determines how we see things not the individual, because civilization and society build up rules and concert definitions for everything we find today. People have different opinions from each other about different aspects, which in fact make people different from each other and make some more successful than others. Society in general can be divided into two very distinct subcategories: some are called ‘reasonable ones’ and the others are the ‘Emotional ones. Where the reasonable ones can be considered to be ‘Business men’ and the emotional ones, ‘Artists’. Both with a very distinct perception of reality and how things are. What I mean with this is that people grow up learning what different things mean and look like, but we just see and understand it because we believe it, just like everyone else. For instance: Art people in general would not be able to see and understand the work as it is but how they perceive it as they think it is and as they want to.

Different people will have different opinions from others which will in fact identify the claim where People see and understand things not as things are but as they are, because each person has a different way of thinking and of interpreting things which leads to a different understanding of the matter. That’s why Art is so subjective towards reality and self-understanding. And this is why the so called ‘Emotional ones’ interpret reality depending on culture and education which rely on ethics and on their self-actualisation of global perspectives. On the other hand ‘reasonable ones’ are objective on what they want and on what they believe.

They see things just as they are with no second thoughts and no discussions on other ways of perceiving things. They have explicit points of view where all they perceive is rational and exponential, for it relies on morals and on efficient and productive perceptions on how things are. These people are considered in society today as the smart ones; they are always right on their decisions and on what they believe. But in the end everyone enjoys Arts in all forms: musicals, productions, or even exhibitions because artists see reality as they are and not as people would reason it.

An example of this from my studies is in Visual Art’s when I finish a studio work, I perceive it as I had in mind and as I created it, I can immediately understand what message it is sent. But when I show it to other colleagues they normally perceive it differently, and most of the time different from each other. This normally makes me understand my work in different perspectives and perceptions of reality different then mine. Sometimes I realize that what I had in mind and how I perceived it was not the most appropriate thought for the Art piece.

And this really made me understand that in Art you can never see things as they are, but only through our perception. That’s why Art is a vehicle that carries out messages with both social and cultural meanings that make people understand differently from each other. From my experiences in class I realized that I was able to express my points of view on what I believed and perceived through Art. Also I learned that Art can also be considered to be ‘scientific’ when it concerns technicality and styles. Each one of my colleagues and friends interpret my messages in a different way.

Intuition is also a great way of knowing and understanding how things really are, and we all need it wherever we’re rational or emotional human beings. Intuition can lead to a broader understanding of things, not as they are but as the human being sees them, because Intuition is used to perceive how things work, happen or just simply understand things, predicting how they will turn out, which normally depends on how the person perceives reality. For example a person that never left home before will not have the same type of intuition from someone with a great experience of life.

Intuition depends on how people were educated to perceive and understand things. Not everyone intuits things the same way because each person has lived certain situations in their life which determines their way of thinking and of perceiving reality from intuition. On the other hand Intuition is said to be quite objective, as things happen for a reason and intuition relays on scientific explanations that determine what happens and how it happens. I conclude that in fact there is a moment in which everything converges to one only coexistence, where artists and business men cannot live without each other.

Business men need creativity and the ability to express their views visually. And artists need the capacity to negotiate, to expose and to sell to be able to survive. Artists are seen as freaks of society, where they are in a certain way disabled and do not have any sort of reasoning, and do not have the same type of rationality. Because artists express what’s inside their heads: painters, paint what they see in their minds, musicians sing and Wright what they feel, writers, write what they know and actors, act how they perceive it.

So Artists see and understand things not as they are, but as they interpret it and express it. While business men believe in proof and in what they see, believing in what is rational, and believing in what is effective reasoning. Overall people see and understand things not as things are, but as they are, because it does not matter how reality is shown, each person will perceive things considering their experiences, cultural baggage and beliefs.