We have been studying a new unit in Theory of Knowledge; ‘natural sciences’, and how they affect our world. At first, we discussed how we would define the Natural Sciences in a TOK essay, here was my answer;
The natural sciences are the science that studies the physical and natural world, including physics, geology, astronomy, biology and chemistry. The natural sciences refer to shared knowledge far more than personal, as topics such as these rely much more on factual information (proven through experiments) shared by a large population of people, rather than individual thoughts and beliefs. Natural sciences produce knowledge regarding the vision of the world, and the vision of ourselves.
Later in the lesson, we conversed on the effects of natural sciences – how they impact our perception of being human, and how we look at ourselves and others around us. I often tend to look at the world more objectively due to natural sciences, particularly in a ‘true’ or ‘false’ ideology. I have become less dependent on faith and religion, and I focus more on the testability of certain things – if there is a God, how can we prove it exists? I find more than ever, seeing is believing.
The way I perceive myself and as a human being is through the lens of the natural sciences including physics, biology and chemistry. In addition to that, I feel like to an extent, the social sciences including the psychology and the way who we are as a human being are an extent to natural sciences and why the body is viewed as natural sciences and the brain or rather the actual thinking is more human sciences. Furthermore, everything I do such as eating or even like skateboarding is governed by common sense that is derived mainly from the natural sciences. I know I have to eat because my body feels hungry because it needs energy. I know that I have to be careful when skateboarding for example because of the dangerous of pain by the physics of skateboarding for instance. My hopes and feelings are mainly governed by the natural sciences, even if they are influenced by other areas of knowledge. That it is the most reliable
Interesting reflection. How can you “trust” in those things you cannot really see? Considering the ways of knowing, which one do you trust more? emotions? perceptions? reason? intuition?…