Decoding Perception: Bias, Knowledge, and Language Meaning

Understanding Perception, Belief, and Knowledge

The Five Senses: Our Bridge to the World

My experience of the world comes to me through these five senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. The process by which these senses make me aware of what occurs outside of my immediate world is called perceiving.

How Personality and Experience Shape Perception

Two primary factors contribute to the way we view the world, significantly impacting our biases: unique personalities and our past experiences. Perceiving and believing are essential elements in our lives.

Perceptions act like lenses that reflect our individual personality, ways of viewing everything, and experiences. These perceptions then form beliefs, which construct our knowledge about the world. Beliefs are essentially our conclusions about the world.

Defining Perception

Perceiving is defined as actively selecting, organizing, and interpreting what is experienced by your senses. It is our ability to understand or notice something by using our five senses. For example, when you encounter a new perfume, you actively perceive its scent.

Active Participation and Bias Awareness

Our active participation contributes significantly to how we perceive the world around us. Exposure to diverse environments, such as college, helps you better understand your own biases, allowing you to actively identify when you are being biased.

Assumptions about things often operate on an unconscious level. These unconscious expectations can push us toward conflict.

Belief vs. Knowledge: The Role of Proof

The distinction between believing and knowing rests on evidence and proof. For instance, I know I will die (a certainty based on universal evidence), but I believe I will die at an old age (a conclusion based on hope or personal expectation, lacking definitive proof).

Knowledge, Truth, and Universal Concepts

How do we distinguish between knowledge and truth?

• Truth often leans on belief and holds your personal values (personal truths).
• Knowledge is proven or researched information that has withstood the test of time.

Fields like philosophy, art, and literature prove to be a strong knowledge base because they speak to the underlying, universal values of humans despite the passage of time. They address concepts such as revenge, love, and grief. "Universal" theories are those based on evidence or perceived evidence.

The Three Stages of Knowing

The stages of knowing describe intellectual development:

1. Garden of Eden (Dualism): Believing that knowledge is absolute and derived from a single authority.
2. Anything Goes (Relativism): The after-effect of learning one authority isn’t the only perception out there, sometimes leading to lawlessness or being content with the status quo.
3. Thinking Critically (Commitment): Actively engaging with diverse perspectives and forming reasoned conclusions.

Connotation and Denotation in Language

These terms define how we understand word meaning:

• Connotation: What words are associated with, holding images or beliefs attached to a word, rather than the dictionary meaning. Examples: immigrant, homeless.
• Denotation: The actual, literal dictionary definition.

The Impact of Vague Language

Vague language presents both pros and cons:

• Pros: In law, vagueness allows for flexibility and different interpretations (e.g., the "right to bear arms," which originally meant protecting family and homestead).
• Cons: In critical fields, such as medicine, language should never be vague, as precision is essential.

Technology's Influence on Language Use

Slang, technology, and text abbreviations significantly impact language. For example, a professor might see a blur of text abbreviations in student work. Filters often creep into formal communication, and students are frequently unable to distinguish when it is appropriate to use informal language.