Language and reason as ways of knowing Essay Example for Free

Language and reason as ways of knowing Essay Knowledge is also said as ways of knowing. It means information and skills acquired through experience and education. The acquisition of knowledge is done by three main factors; perception, language and reason. In this essay we sought to see the strengths and limitations of those learning approaches. Lets take an example, how do we know that in a bottle, labeled crystal, there is water? We would use this example to explore the three cases. Perception is the way of taking messages and processing it by the brain to obtain meaningful information. Using the example above, we would do anything possible to conclude that what we are consuming from the bottle is water. That is we would observe, smell, taste, etc. We can see that we use our senses to identify the substance. We would observe the bottle, its labeling (name, ingredients etc.), colour of the substance and advertisement on the substance; we would smell the substance and even taste it (this would be last because we fear it might be harmful). All this shows that using our senses, we can identify objects and moving organism; this is the major strength of perception (immense knowledge is gained). Another point would be upon losing one of the senses; we are able to intensify the others, which help us even more in detection but surplus always comes with its difficulties. Subliminal perception is the way trying to identify objects with the memory only, for example a patient may not remember someones name but seems to know that person, and thus that patient tries to associate a name that goes well with that person that he/she declares to be unidentifiable. The problem is that even with our senses, we are limited in perception and its very frustrating to know how little we know. Sometimes our senses may deceive us, we may see the substance transparent but it is not necessarily water but another liquid. We can have perceptual illusions where we believe an object to have a specific shape but actually differs from what we have thought of. We may also have hallucination, we may feel, see, hear, taste and smell something when there is really nothing of such kind. We also tend to conclude on the very first bit of information received as we have been in such situation before (experience). Language is a method of communication which involves a sender, a message and a receiver to express thoughts. It was developed by humans and when using it, the rules were grammar and the symbols were words. The advantage of this method of learning is that its very simple (user-friendly) to use and every person in the world uses it. So communication is easy, thus enriching the ability to acquire knowledge. The greatest advantage is that there are many ways to communicate the thought, therefore enabling people to understand in a way or other. Using the example above, we can give important information, express what we feel and enquire about the substance in the bottle and also in different ways so that all the people involved can understand. There are also seven functions of language, which guides us to where each piece of information acquired can be classified. Despite language having a strong face of learning, it still has its disadvantages. The example above, the bottle of supposedly water, we have used our senses to identify it but without language it is impossible to give the facts, views etc correctly and even harder to communicate the information in different ways; some people uses too many words to explain only a word(can be a different language). Also different people have different views and not all will agree on what one has said about the substance. Reason is a way to justify what we have acquired as knowledge based on previous experiences. If we cannot do so, therefore we have not gained any knowledge. Taking the above example again, we say if that substance is water because its tasteless; we say so because we have heard, read and experimented on water. The strength of reasoning would be the rationality and logic arguments. Rationality is what allows us to say things that do make sense, we will not say that the substance in the bottle is water because of the shape of the bottle; it does not make sense. The rationality of a statement shows how the processing of all the information acquired is done and says whether its good or not (there is really a bad reason as long as a person can justify it). Being logical depends on the argument put forward as example given above. To be logical, the deductive argument must be correct and validate the argument; this differentiates between a good reasoning and bad reasoning, using above example, 1) all liquid that is pH 7 is water and the substance in the bottle is of pH 7, thus the substance in the bottle is water (this a valid deductive argument) . But sometime the arguments may be valid but does not sound, all substances that are colourless are harmless and the substance in the bottle is colourless, therefore its harmless (concentrated hydrochloric acid is also colourless but is very harmful).  To conclude knowledge gained through perception, language and reason is a great advantage to us, human beings but often can be deceptive and invalid. We should be more careful when taking in information, processing, expressing and justifying it. Here again we see that they are all linked!

My Bedroom :: Descriptive Essay Examples, narrative, Observation

My Bedroom    Do you ever wonder why certain places mean so much to certain people? When I think of my bedroom, I realize why some people are touchy about who goes in their room or who has been touching things in their home, it is because those things are important to them and may have some meaning. Places like my bedroom are places where we can relax and be comfortable and I think that is why it is important to people, because we can be ourselves and feel comfortable, we can also just sit down and rest our bones and relax. Another important reason is we can go there when we want privacy, we can just shut our door, maybe even lock it, and tell everyone in our household not to bother us. Also our rooms hold most of our personal belongings and those things are important to us and we do not want anyone else to touch them or in some cases go near them.    Bedrooms are a place where we can be comfortable and we can sit back and relax. When we are tired or not feeling the best we can go to our room, shut our door, and lay down and relax. Maybe even turn on some music or read a book or magazine. My bed is where I like to retreat to when I want to relax. I have a double bed with four pillows and my favorite comforter. It is a Little Mermaid comforter, I know it is childish but it is soft and warm. And of course my Tickle Me Elmo sits on my bed and keeps me company. A lot of times I just lay down and close my eyes and daydream about places I'd like to see or think about things that make me happy. One thing we should not do is think about things we need to get done or anything that makes us feel stressed because then we'll never feel relaxed. I usually try to stay away from these sort of thoughts and it usually works out well.    The reason my bedroom is so important to me is because my room holds all of my personal belongings, which are very important to me. Also my room is a comfortable place to study or just to relax.    I can also have privacy whenever I want it by resorting to my room, this may be hard for some people if they share a room.

Electrochemical cell lab Aim Essay

Aim :- To find out the feasibility of a redox reaction by looking at the cell potential of the reaction . Quantitative observation The table below shows the values of cell potential that were recorded when the experiment was performed Reaction Cell potential (ÂÂ ±0.01V) CuSO4 and ZnSO4 0.99V CuSO4 and AgNO3 0.64V Ag 1.39V Qualitative Observation Reaction Obsevrations CuSO4 and ZnSO4 Copper sulphate turns from clear to blue , whereas zinc sulphate remains colorless CuSO4 and AgNO3 Copper sulphate is blue in color , silver nitrate is colorless Ag Data processing Experiment 1 Zn(s) -> Zn2+ (aq) + 2e- (aq) Cu2+ (aq) + 2e- (aq) -> Cu (s) Cu2+ (aq) + Zn(s) -> Cu(s) + Zn2+ (aq) Experiment 2 Cu(s) -> Cu2+ (aq)+ 2e- (aq) Ag+(aq) + e- (aq) -> Ag(s) Cu(s) + 2Ag+ (aq) -> Cu2+ (Aq) + 2Ag (s) Experiment 3 Zn(s) -> Zn2+ (aq) + 2e- (aq) Ag+ (aq) + e- (aq)-> Ag(s) Zn(s) + 2Ag+ (aq) -> Zn2+ (aq) + 2Ag (s) The table below shows the literature values for the respective cell potential Reaction Cell potential (ÂÂ ±0.01V) CuSO4 and ZnSO4 0.34V CuSO4 and AgNO3 0.46 V. Ag 1.10 V Error percentage = (|difference between the literature and experimental value|)/(the literature value )x100 = (|0.34V – 0.99V|)/(0.34V) x100 = 191.17% We can similarly find the error percentages for other cell potentials also The table below shows the respective error percentages of each of the cell potential Reaction Error percentage CuSO4 and ZnSO4 191.17% CuSO4 and AgNO3 39.13% Ag 16.36% Theory Electrochemical cells In an electrochemical cell, electricity is produced through chemical reactions. There consist two electrodes: – the negative electrode and the positive electrode. At the negative electrode

Energy Is The Best Option - 2071 Words

Energy. It is what drives our world. Humans have been producing energy for their own use for thousands of years. In the past century, the use of fossil fuels has become a key component of how America is fueled. While the use of fossil fuels has changed the landscape of the U.S.A., it is time to change the country’s energy orientation. Wind energy is the best option to begin to change electricity production for the future. Fossil fuel is quickly becoming more negative than positive. Many of its impacts, from causing climate change to polluting water supplies can be removed by transitioning to being powered by wind. Because of its longterm sustainability, lower negative environmental impact, and ability to benefit America’s economy, wind†¦show more content†¦As time goes on, and the wind keeps Ludtke 2 blowing, the ability that humans have to effectively capture this power is going to do nothing but increase. In the 1990s, this trend was especially strong with a 25.7% annual increase in wind energy production (â€Å"Wind Energy†). Growing the capacity to capture wind is key to its future as a viable energy source. Much of fossil fuel’s attraction is our immensely efficient ability to capture its energy. However, the energy efficiency of wind energy by itself, along with our increased future ability to capture its energy, legitimizes the claim that using wind for power in America is viable down the road. Looking ahead, America’s needs for energy are going to go up, while the availability of fossil fuels is going to go down. Conflicts over price and distribution of this fuel will grow. Even today, one can see price swings for petroleum and oil seemingly based purely on the whims of those producing it. If this energy was coming from the wind, a free and unending source of energy, foreign leaders and oil moguls would not be the ones dictating where energy comes from and how expensive it is. Instead, energy would be a much more stable, conflictfree point (â€Å"Renewable Energy Use†). This stability benefits everyone from governments to large corporations to individual fuel consumers. Governments rely less on imports and are better able to predict accurately energy needs and prices in the