tok essay

Submitted By paulinerigo
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Topic: Reason is no more universal than any other way of knowing. They are different kinds of rationalities, all of which are equal value.

Reason is traditionally portrayed as the opposite of emotion in terms of the acquisition of knowledge; it is the cause, the explanation, or justification for an action or event. Reason is no more universal than any other way of knowing. There are more ways of knowing, beyond only reason. The different ways of knowing that are of equal value in the universe as reason include: sense perception, faith and imagination.

Reason is not a universal way of knowing as it has changed and is still changing over time. It is also not a universal way of knowing because so many other ways of knowing are of as of equal value. People have had different needs and things to think about at different time periods. For example, in prehistoric times, people’s reason was very different then the reason of people in the Shakespearean times, because of this significant change in environment, such as, all of the different materials invented.
This different way to rationalize and reason during each century also greatly has to do with people’s sense perception. Sense perception is probably the most immediate way of knowing and the first that we develop as human beings. In my opinion, we can rely on sense perception because it is so embedded into the way we think and makes it so natural. The sense perception for each century is very different because it used to be a principled way of knowing but it gradually decreased in importance over time. For example, in the prehistoric time the sense perception and reason were based on the surroundings, which included the nature, the inventions, all of the surroundings and the people themselves. People relied solely on their sense perception to survive as they used it to know who and what was around them or threatening them. Nowadays, reason, that includes sense perception, is revolved around books, the Internet, and all the new knowledge that has been acquired from history and memory. In our current century, people now rely more on their material goods than their sense perceptions. Even though, reason has become more difficult, the ways of knowing have evolved at the same time, creating a balance between both factors. Thus, emphasizing my statement of how reason changes over time.

Faith is for many people, just a valid way of knowing. Faith is to have complete trust or confidence in someone or something. In some ways faith and reason are not the same. Of course, they are connected in some way but the difference is that reason establishes itself from the faith you gain. For example, if you have faith in the knowledge of your sister, then you have reason to believe she is smart. That is why faith is just as valid as reason. Another way to look at how reason is not a universal way of knowing and connecting it to faith is by looking at the age of people and the different generations. The way you reason as a child, teen, adult, and elderly person evolves over time. A child will often have a different way of thinking and reasoning then an adult will. This has to do with experiences lived and opportunities gained throughout a lifetime. Moreover, a child often has less
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