The Process of Knowing
I. Perceiving
Are these lines parallel or sloped? What is you perception?
The fist step in the process of knowing is perceiving. Perceiving deals with two kinds of truth, objective and subjective. Objective truth is the true nature of an object despite personal biases. It states that an object exists, even if anyone thinks that it does not. For example, it would be untrue to say that Mr. Sciuto does not exist, becuse he obviously does. Even if the person claiming Mr. Sciuto's nonexistence does not know who he is, it is still an untrue statement: a person's lack of knowledge about an object does not mean it does not exist. Subjective truth colors our objective truth with our personal biases. For instance, a student may hate every teacher he knows and then one year get a great teacher with a lot of interesting things to say. This student would probably ignore all the helpful information the teacher has and force himself to hate the teacher and tune out everything the teacher says. Although the objective truth is that the teacher is competent and great at his job, the student's subjective truth about the teacher is that the teacher is incompetent and full of hot air.
II. Categorizing
After perceiving an object, we place it into a certain category. The student with the great teacher who hates all teachers, for example, would consider the teacher a quack as opposed to an average student who would consider the teacher very helpful and insightful. As you can see, our subjective truths greatly affect the way we categorize. Placing things into categories too quickly, however, can lead to stereotypes and prejudices. Our previous experiences force us to stereotype and prejudge. For instance, you may categorize a blonde girl that you have never seen before as an airhead due to stories and jokes we have heard before. This is a streo type and it makes you prejudiced.
Here are some classic classroom stereotypes.
III. Evaluating
After placing our perceptions into categories, we order the categories depending on our subjective relationship to them. For instance, a child being offered a nickel or a dime would quickly choose the nickel since it is larger. After growing up a bit and being taught about money however, the adolescent would choose the dime without even thinking since he knows that the dime is worth more. Herd need also influences our evaluation. When we allow others to think and evaluate for us, we put things that are not trluy important to us as main prioritites, like dressing fashionably or critisizing others.
This is an example of breaking away from herd need.
IV. Symbolizing
Once we have properly evaluated the categories, we need to be sure to convey the idea clearly. It is important to know that words have many connotations, and it you should always use the best word. For example, succinct, pithy, terse, concise, curt, and reticent all mean untalkative, but they all have different connotations. When describing a formal speaker who gets his point across in few words, you would not call im "curt" because that word has a negative connotation suggesting rudeness. A better word would be "terse" because that has a positive connotation that suggests effectiveness and neatness. It is also imortant to be able to distinguish between homonyms and other commonly confused words. Choosing the wrong words makes you appear unintelligent.
The words we choose can vividly express our thoughts and ideas.
V. Testing
After we have properly formed our knowledge, we have to put them to the test to either strengthen or destroy it. We can never know if our knowledge is true or not unless we know the facts supporting the opposite viewpoint. To use the example of the student who hates teachers but now has a great teacher, this student should test his theory by talking to the principal, who probably knows that the teacher is a great educator. The principal could then talk about the teacher's credentials, curriculum, and past successes with students. Then the student might realize that he has nothing to back up his belief that the teacher is incompetent and change the negative subjective truth he has created about the teacher to a positive one.