TOK Illusions in TOK Essays

TOK Illusions in TOK Essays TOK Illusions in TOK Essay TOK Illusions in TOK Essay Why are we so sure that we know what we see? For instance lets take the story â€Å"The Mouse Who Ate the Cheese† which we studied in class. Bill was sure he knew that a mouse ate the cheese because he had witnessed this happening right before his eyes. He used sense perception and sight to know that he had seen the mouse clearly. Everyday people uses their senses, to make an inference and assumption. People claim to know things due to what they believe and because their have used sense perception. However, can we actually depend on our senses one hundred percent? Do they always tell us the truth? All five senses, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting, are important in developing thoughts and ideas, but the sense of sight typically sets itself above the others in its effectiveness at creating strong and lasting beliefs. In everyday life, the sense of sight is used to give evidence to what we believe. Logically, believing what you see makes sense. The ancient quote â€Å"seeing is believing† supports the fact that experiencing or seeing something first hand makes one believe it. However, at times when a person assumes that they are basing their belief on sight, they are really allowing themselves to see what they already internally believe. The mind can be made to see something in a certain way simply because the belief is already present. And this initial belief is used in illusions; therefore, while seeing can help us believe, it can also hinder us from reality. The â€Å"Breathing Square† by Michael Bach represents an illusion, and demonstrated the knowledge issue that can occur with out senses. Although vision certainly gives us information, scientists now know that biological eyesight is much more complicated, and unfortunately, can also give us false information at times. Our eyes detect light, however it’s our brain that â€Å"sees† and therefore once we are caught believing what we see is true, it is difficult to change this falsehood. For instance the â€Å"Breathing Square† is a visual illusion, because although you may still believe what you see, what you believe and what the object actually represents may different greatly. When watching the illusion, the observer is aware of the fact that the blue square of constant size slowly rotates. However our senses deceive us and to every observes the square seems to be changing size, in fact it seems to be â€Å"breathing†. This phenomenon is described as â€Å"motion binding†. The brain uses â€Å"motion binding† as â€Å"shortcuts† which lets us process information faster, instead of observing every bit of information individually before the brain can form a picture. Therefore, it can happen sometimes, that the brain forms a picture to quickly and is therefore tricked. The â€Å"Breathing Square† is a great example of how our senses are able to trick us into thinking that the blue square is changing size however in reality it’s the orange squares which are confusing our senses to interpret the square differently. Finally although every person looking at the illusion knows that the square is not actually â€Å"breathing† it is impossible to stop the brain from reaching this conclusion. It is set in our minds and the belief of the square â€Å"breathing† is already present, making it unachievable to force one to see the reality. Michael Bach’s illusions are magnificent and are able to give us insight about how betraying our sense can be at time. It leaves me wondering is I am constantly being tricked by my senses and how I know what I am actually seeing is reality.