Weighing+WOKs

Perception, the way of knowing that relies on your senses to gain knowledge, reason, the way of knowing that relies on your logic to gain knowledge, and emotion, the way of knowing that relies on your feelings to gain knowledge, all have different weights in providing good evidence for claims within the different areas of knowledge. Each area of knowledge possesses different standards to determine what is considered “good evidence.” Perception and reason are weighed the same in the natural sciences and human sciences, but emotion, on the other hand, is weighed very differently. In the natural sciences, the sciences that include chemistry, biology, and physics, perception is relied on heavily because the natural sciences depend on observation of materials to provide evidence claims. Scientists use scientific instruments in order to observe, with their senses, a certain concept. For example, perception is used when someone studies atoms carefully through a very powerful microscope. They need to rely on their sight in this case in order to look at the atom and to observe how it behaves. Reason is relied on equally as perception within the natural sciences. Although perception is used in order to observe things, reason is used in the next step. Using the same example of the atom, a scientist may observe several different atoms with similar behavior, but using perception alone does not allow the scientist to draw any solid conclusions. The scientist needs to use reason based off of the perception. If he observed that the different atoms behaved similarly, he would use his reason to draw the conclusion that they must share similar characteristics if they behave like each other. Hence, reason has an equal weight to perception when providing good evidence for claims within the area of natural sciences. Emotion is barely used in the natural sciences because the information in this area of knowing is generally objective. Emotion is not used very often simply because there is no logical inclusion of emotion within a majority of scientific facts. How can one incorporate emotion into observing an atom and have this emotion affect the overall outcome of the observation? One cannot use emotion to provide good evidence for claims in the natural sciences as it can contrast with objective scientific information. In the human sciences, the sciences that include psychology, history, and sociology, perception is also relied on heavily, and has the same weight in providing good evidence for claims as perception when it is used in the natural sciences. This is because, although human sciences generally pertain to the study of humans and their behavior, perception is needed in order to study this. One must observe the humans and their behavior in order to provide evidence for claims. Without the use of perception, this would be impossible. Similarly, reason is relied on as heavily as perception, just as in the natural sciences, and for the same reason. Good evidence for claims cannot be formed using perception alone. For example, a psychologist cannot just study a human’s behavior and just immediately understand what goes on in his mind. He must reason and use his logic in order to draw conclusions as to why this specific person behaves in the way he does. Unlike the natural sciences, however, emotion is used in order to provide good evidence for claims in the human sciences. The reason this way of knowing is used in the human sciences and not the natural sciences is because humans are involved more in the former. Emotion can be beneficially used because one can connect with other humans, which is all part of gaining knowledge within the human sciences. For example, in history, in order to study the past, a historian can try to understand why someone in the past did something by trying to connect with how they felt at that certain time. Although a majority of it may be speculation, there is a significant contribution to understanding history by using emotion to somewhat empathize with people of the past and to understand why they would do whatever it was that they did. Perception and reason have the same weight in the natural sciences and human sciences because both of these areas of knowing rely very heavily on observation and logic. They are also more objective when compared to emotion (this is not to say, however, that perception and logic are not subjective at times). Emotion, on the other hand, is different and more useful in the human sciences because it allows for empathizing and just being able to understand someone to the extent that it is beneficial for providing good evidence for claims within the areas of knowledge. However, whatever provides “good” evidence for claims in the different areas of knowing can be drastically different because the word “good” itself can be relative and have different standards.