Theory of Knowledge Essay: Advantages and Disadvantages of Sense Perception as a Way of Knowing?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Sense Perception as a Way of Knowing?

What is Sense Perception? Sense Perception is our primary Way of Knowing. It includes all our 5 senses- sight, smell, touch and taste. It is the reason we are what we are today as the human race, the most advanced species on this Earth. It is our basic point of entry into this world. For example, as a child we see people walk and the way they walk and without reasoning it out we learn how to walk, or sitting on a chair, we don't ask why he or she is sitting on the chair we just know that a chair is meant to be sat on. This is why I say it is our ‘primary' Way of Knowing, and then comes reason, emotion and language. Even though there are several advantages to sense perception, there can also be several disadvantages.

Sense Perception has its limitations. For example, if we see a book, we don't know what it is or what it is used for until we have been told, which is language. Therefore sense perception cannot help us understand the entire world around us entirely on its own, the other Ways of Knowing play their vital part in our lives as well. And Sense Perception does not help us form our beliefs; we use a combination of reason emotion and language to form our beliefs. Since we are born we are told there is god and depending on what religion our family follows we are told to follow, this is solely based on Sense Perception, but as we grow older we start using reason, emotion and language in a more advanced form and so we can decide what religion we would want to follow or not follow any at all. In Igatpuri we went trekking which is an adventure activity; if we used only Sense Perception it could be very dangerous. As while we are trekking we always have to see where to take our next step and will we trip or not, we can only make this decision after we have reasoned out what will happen if I place my foot here or there. Most of the times I would just stick close to one person and place my foot exactly where they placed theirs, this required only sense perception but I can say for sure that no two people have the same balance so if the person walking in front of me does not fall at a slippery place it is not for sure that I also won't. Therefore, how reliable is Sense Perception on its own? Not very. In fact it can be deceiving on its own.

Sense Perception is a very superficial Way of Knowing. And ipso facto it can lead us to many truths but all very superficial in nature. For example, when we see a table a dog, we know it's a dog because we've taught about it or read it in books when we were a child; the truth is it's just a dog. Now take for example a sick dog, Sense Perception alone cannot lead us to the fact that it is sick, we see certain symptoms which can tell us if it is sick or not, for example if it is lying in a certain way we reason it out as to why it is lying in