TOK Essay Test: Sense Perception and Reason

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Recommended: The role of perception

The knowledge question being pursued in this essay is: what role does what we expect to see- or are used to seeing- play in what we observe? What we expect to see greatly influences the observations that we make, as confirmation bias is created therefore we are more likely to accept something as true. It is difficult to make observations with neutrality once bias is formed.
Reason, either deductive or inductive, creates expectations in which bias is present because observations are more easily accepted as true. Deductive reasoning is moving from general truths to specific knowledge, and inductive reasoning is moving from specific details and observations to more general conclusions. Expectations can easily be formed from both types of reason and influence what is observed, as we are more easily accepting of something that we can reason to be true. However, there is false confidence in what we “should” see, as there is truly minimal certainty in reason because of the assumption that the future will be the same as the past when knowledge is always subject to re-examination and change. ...

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