Matthew French
TOK1 - Period B
5 March 2010
B. How, and to what extent, might expectations, assumptions and beliefs affect sense perceptions? How, if at all, can factors that bias our views of the world be identified? Do knowers have a moral duty to examine their own perceptual filters?
Our expectations, assumptions and beliefs inevitably combine to form personal biases that filter our perceptions. We can only really become aware of our biases and the factors that spawn them through the observations of others. These observers can notice trends in our perception, and from there deduce a bias. If they promulgate this observation, the person with the bias can become aware, and from that awareness they can contemplate this perceptual filter and decide whether or not to abolish it.
Perceptual filters are incredibly common. In IB English, we are reading the book Rashomon, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. In one of the stories, we read about the suicide of a samurai. Growing up in the American culture and the Catholic religion, I have been taught to believe that suicide is shameful. I perceived the suicide of this Japanese man to be of the same character until Mr. McDowell explained to us that this suicide, known as seppuku, was actually honorable to samurai. I was never really aware of my disgust at the thought of suicide until I realized that my perceptions were tainted by this belief. Upon Mr. McDowell's illumination, I realized this perceptual filter of mine and recognized that suicide may have many different characteristics.
This is not the only example of a cultural belief and a resulting perceptual filter. My parents have always believed that the United States of America is the best country in the world, and this became even more evident while we watched the Winter Olympics. I noticed that they would only cheer for the American athletes, and if a foreign athlete won an event they would be disappointed. This can simply be defined as patriotism, which is very common, but is nevertheless a blatant perceptual filter. People are often raised with the belief that their country is better than all others, and so wholeheartedly support their nation while disregarding the success of others. Their perceptions are affected by this expectation, which became especially apparent to me while watching these Winter Olympics. I was able to recognize this trait in my parents because I have always been interested more in world unity than geographic borders. My parents may have been aware of the fact that they have a great love for their country, but they did not realize the extent of their favoritism until I presented it to them.
There are some instances in which our perceptual filters should undergo examination once someone makes them aware to us. The book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell, describes an incident in which an innocent man is shot multiple times by police officers. The man, Amadou Diallo, resembled a rapist and was described by the officers as looking suspicious. They perceived his actions and appearance incorrectly due to the perceptual filter caused by their expectations of him to be a rapist. As a result, they shot him 41 times. In this case, the officers are now aware of this perceptual filter of theirs due to a bias of assumption, and are now obliged to examine their perceptions before they act on them, so as to prevent another catastrophe like this from occurring.
Sense perception is one of the Ways of Knowing, but that doesn't inhibit the effects of the other Ways of Knowing as perceptual filters. For example, my sister has a perceptual bias that is influenced very highly by emotion. My sister and I have an unspoken competition. She felt strongly that my success was only a degradation of hers, making her feel less important or intelligent than me, and so her perceptions became tainted. Her perceptions of my interests were marked by negativity, because she expected them to be an attack on hers. These expectations acted as a perceptual filter in which she became opposed to nearly everything that she associated with me, and she only realized this when I observed the trend and expressed it to her. In turn she informed me of how I treated her as inferior because of a related perceptual filter in which I saw her interests as basic and generic, and therefore perceived them as unworthy of my attention. In this case it was essential for us to abolish our biases and resulting perceptual filters because it was destroying our relationship.
I stand by my claim that these biases can only be recognized by observers, and then passed on to the person with the perceptual filter. If a bias is present, would it not act as an impediment of its own recognition? Perceptual filters are truly unavoidable, but once we are informed of our tainted perception, we can decide whether or not we wish to examine it morally. Ultimately, we should abolish it if it is harmful, but otherwise we are all allowed our own perception, as influenced by biases as it may be.
Word Count:
799
Bibliography:
Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: the Power of Thinking without Thinking. New York: Back Bay, 2007. Print.
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. Rashomon and Other Stories. Singapore: Tuttle, 1952. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment