Do sense perception, reason and emotion have the same weight in
providing good evidence for claims within the different areas of
knowledge? Compare HS (economics, anthropology, psychology) and
Natural science (physics, biology, chemistry)
Emotion, sensory perception and reasoning have an unbalanced influence
between the human science and natural science areas of knowing. Human
sciences such as economics, anthropology and psychology are more heavily
influenced by sense perception and reasoning, but emotion still plays a role.
Similarly, the natural sciences are more influenced by sensory perception and
reasoning. The role of emotion in the human sciences is an assisting role, not
providing evidence but helping in the research of topics.
Emotion does play a role in human sciences; as prior knowledge and past
experiences are still called upon to reach a verdict, but sense perception and
reasoning play a more important role. An example of this would be a statistician
looking at a graph and analyzing economic patterns of the past century, to
predict how the graphs are going to act in the near future. By looking at the past
it is possible to predict a vague idea of what is going to happen in the future. As
technological advancements and human knowledge grows, it is obvious that the
vague idea is going to be less reliable. An example of this would be from ancient
times, when people believed that the earth was flat. As time progressed different
ideologies were formed, obsolescing past beliefs. Although emotion plays a role
in the human sciences, emotion plays a greater role in the human sciences.
Emotion plays a great assisting role in the natural sciences. Emotion does not
play a role in the discovery or theory of natural sciences, but it plays a role in
people’s attitudes towards these discoveries and theories. Emotion is not as
significant in natural sciences, but there is still an element of emotion involved
when it comes to ethics. This is especially evident in chemistry and biology,
when it comes to testing. An example of this in chemistry would be the Large
Hadron Collider (LHAC) and how people thought that it would be the end of the
world, as it went against the laws of nature. An example of emotion in biology
would be the testing of owl’s flight patterns and how they would have to keep
the owls in captivity under harsh conditions. Clearly, emotion plays a great role
in natural science, not in the actual studying of natural sciences, but in the
process of studying. Reasoning plays a great role in human sciences, in a variety
of ways.
In the human sciences, reasoning is used to a great extent, especially in the areas
of psychology, history and economics. By using reasoning, it is possible to justify
why something has happened, using rationality, which is essential in psychology,
and important in history and economics. In psychology, to diagnose a patient’s
mental condition or justify why something is happening, reasoning and
rationality must be used, in conjunction with behavioral patterns to draw a
conclusion. In history and economics, many factors have to be taken into
account, such as political attitudes, the attitudes of the citizens, strength of
economy and the role played by the leaders of the countries. The way reasoning
is used by the human sciences differs greatly from the natural sciences, where
reasoning is used to justify, in a way where new ideas are discovered in the
process.
In the natural sciences, reasoning is used in combination with perception to
draw conclusions, and is the basis of all scientific theory. Without reasoning, the
natural sciences would be indefinite and extremely unreliable. This is because, to
prove a scientific theory, an experiment of some sort must be conducted, and a
reason for the result must be deducted. There are countless examples of this, one
would be Galileo’s discovery of acceleration due to gravity. Galileo dropped two
differently weighted cannonballs from the Leaning Tower of Pisa and found that
both hit the ground at the exact same time. Galileo proved that gravity forced all
objects to accelerate at the exact same speed, regardless of size and weight. The
only factor that altered this was aerodynamics, which would increase or
decrease this speed. This implies that the whole basis of natural sciences is
deduction and reasoning, yet it is impossible for these deductions to be made
without sense perception. This perhaps, is why sense perception is the most
important way of knowing.
Natural sciences rely on sense perception to observe the results of tests. Senses
used most commonly are touch and vision, but hearing, smell and taste during
the process of data collection. Without sense perception, it would not be able to
obtain any of this information. Referring to the previous example, Galileo would
not have been able to judge the time when the cannonballs hit without sight or
hearing. Therefore, perception is the most important way of knowing in regards
to being evidence for knowledge claims in the knowledge area of the natural
sciences. This is consistent with the human sciences, where sense perception
provides key evidence for knowledge claims.
Human sciences rely on perception in the same way as the natural sciences, to
interpret the information being presented by data. Like the natural sciences, the
human sciences cannot be interpreted or developed without the use of sense
perception. An example of sense perception in the human sciences would be a
psychologist studying human behavior without test subjects, but observing
populated areas. The psychologist would have to use their sensory perception to
draw conclusions. It has become clear, that the human sciences and natural
sciences differ in the weight of emotion, reasoning and perception to provide
good evidence in knowledge claims.
Human sciences, such as economics, anthropology and psychology and natural
sciences, such as chemistry, physics and biology are more heavily influenced by
reasoning and sensory perception. Emotion plays a small role in both the human
sciences and the natural sciences, but they are not essential in providing good
knowledge claims. Emotion plays an assisting role, reasoning produces solid
information and sensory perception allows for observations to be made.