Candidate Name: Kabir Malhotra

Session Number: 002151-027

T.O.K Essay

Prescribed Title No. 7:

["We see and understand things not as they

are but as we are." Discuss this claim in
relation to at least two ways of knowing.]

[T.O.K Essay]

[Kabir Malhotra 12.2]

[1539 words]

[Session Number - 002151-027]

2010
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 Candidate Name: Kabir Malhotra
Session Number: 002151-027
T.O.K Essay

"We see and understand things not as they are but as we are."
Discuss this claim in relation to at least two ways of knowing.

The title has a lot of underlying meaning behind it that is not as simple as it seems
upon its first glance. People generally tend to see the same thing but people of different
backgrounds, through the ways of knowing, have different perceptions of the same thing.
Due to this, their understandings of the same things vary.
There is also ambiguity hidden within the title with reference to the subject of the
sentence, `we’. This `we' could have two meanings behind it, either its referring to
individual people or to a society/community with same beliefs or thinking's.
Factors affecting our understanding of things are past experiences, personality,
culture, religion, language, emotion and reason. Our perception is altered by these factors
but the question is to what extent and is it better or worse for us? How far is it true to say
that the human mind shapes the world according to its knowledge needs? We can all see
or observe an object, an event or a situation, but we all have a different understanding of
it and a different point of view. We make an understanding of a situation due to our own
way of perceiving situations in life and the way we see our world.
The problems of perception and sense perception are numerous. The main one
being the difficulty to distinguish between reality and what we perceive it to be. For
instance, a part of the Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny
Boyle is his perception of how people live in the slums of Mumbai. One can argue that
what Mr. Boyle has shown in the movie is his point of view and his understanding of the
way things work in Mumbai. His point of view will differ from a person living in the
slum due to their lifestyles being completely different. The slum dweller has never
experienced things such as the taste of clean water, proper sanitation etc... Whereas Boyle
can go on to criticize it and show the extremities of living in a slum, therefore being a
matter of perception. Interestingly do slum dwellers smell the stench of their excretion? A
good guess would be no. Due to their background and mental state, they have gotten used
to their excretion! Therefore it is not that the organ is functioning differently but rather

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 Candidate Name: Kabir Malhotra
Session Number: 002151-027
T.O.K Essay

because we do not pay strict attention toward it. Slum dwellers therefore are faced with
no choice and how in general humans are species that get used to things no matter how
bad or good they are. Also a slum dweller and an educated person will see the same dirty
water but the former will go ahead to quench their thirst whereas the latter will be
sickened by the thought of drinking it, showing how people coming from two different
backgrounds in society will have their own sense perception of the same thing.
Something along the same lines as Slumdog Millionaire is when I recently
decided to go and attend a book promotion by Jeffrey Archer. One gentleman asked him
a simple question, whether he would like to write a book on India. 1His reply was even
simpler and curt, "No!" He later explained that it wouldn't be morally right for him to
write on India as he would rather let the Indian writers write about their own country, due
to him not being able to perceive India in the same way as the locals who live everyday
of their lives in it do. This perception is not wrong but is limited and perhaps less valid
and so if Archer was to write a book on India he would not do justice to it as his
perception of India and people in it will be completely different from what it actually is.
However this claim is limited as the extent to which an Indians perception is better is
debatable. The foreigner might be a better writer and also will not include and biases that
the Indian might have.
The problems related with perception are quite a few, and people with different
cultures and ideologies help compound them like Mohammad Qasab, a terrorist who was
caught and responsible for the 26111 attacks on Mumbai. The three ways of knowing
influenced Qasab in committing this crime including emotion, sense perception and
reason. Firstly, Qasab reasoned out his endeavor by claiming that the Quran tells
Muslims to kill infidels and other non-believers. Terrorists over the years have
misinterpreted the Quran due to the fact that the statements made in the Quran are quite
vague and have room for different interpretations. For example one verse reads: "slay
them wherever you catch them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every
stratagem (of war)." Who are `they' that this verse discusses? The disparity lies among
the same caste as well. If you ask two different Muslims from different backgrounds the

1
Personal Experience

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 Candidate Name: Kabir Malhotra
Session Number: 002151-027
T.O.K Essay

meaning behind this quote, the perception will differ between say one from a strict
background with one from a liberal background. In the same way throughout the Quran,
terrorists have misinterpreted what the actual meaning of it is. Due to their social
backgrounds and their moral teachings, different kinds of people perceive things
individually. Secondly, Qasab said that he was emotionally compromised as his father
had struck a deal with the terrorist group called Lashkar-e-Toiba for lakhs of rupees.
Qasab says his father told him "These people make loads of money and so will you. You
don't have to do anything difficult. We will have money. We won't be poor any more."
His brother and sisters, he says, will be able to get married. And he "will go to heaven".
Lastly, Qasab perception of the overall terrorist attack is completely different from say a
person in the Taj hotel witnessing the attack. Qasab was brainwashed into committing
this crime as he was told that he was looking after his family as well as doing what the
Quran said was right. In his compromised situation, one can go as far as saying that it was
not completely his fault. So now the question that we face is how to punish Qasab?
Societies in general do not leave any space for people that think and act differently to the
norms. Do we allow anarchy or do we force them into seeing the reasonable aspect of it?
However they can counterclaim this by saying that it is reasonable for them due to the
aforementioned points. The way each person is, determines the choices they make. Even
when different people are faced with the same situation like for example that of Qasab,
factors affect how we end up making important choices.
Instances can be seen that when emotion and reason clash, it is likely for emotion
to empower reasoning. In the poem 2"Night of the Scorpion," by Nizzim Ezekiel, on such
instance can be seen. The husband, whose wife had been bitten by a scorpion, was
initially a rationalist, but after seeing his wife withering in pain was compromised by
emotion and started performing rituals. This shows us that in significant instances, when
there is a battle between emotion and reason, emotion generally tends to give way. This is
specially the case when it can be seen that some cultures being more emotional than
others, like the Italians and Greeks are generalized to be very emotional people and love
portraying their passion for one another.

2
Poem studied in English SL, in the collection by Nizzim Ezekiel

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 Candidate Name: Kabir Malhotra
Session Number: 002151-027
T.O.K Essay

Another instance can be brought about through history and historical evidence.
History is based on facts of occurrences in the past. So how is it that two people who
write about the same facts; talk about two varying aspects of the same war? Historians
bring about one such instance where they see the same thing but understand it not as it is
but as they are. Also the limitation of language can be witnessed as there is scope of
biases and misinterpretations of different historians writing from different cultures and
societies.
Social cultural background brings out the way in which people have been brought
up i.e. the society in which they live in influences them to an extent. In what way do our
cultural beliefs limit or enhance the way we 'see' and 'understand' ourselves and our
world? For example recently the England badminton team withdrew from the World
Badminton Championships due to terrorist threats. England being conservative, due to
perhaps past experiences with terrorism, decided that the risk attached with the threats
was too great to indulge in. However every other country participating in this prestigious
tournament did not back down. So, the tournament is the same thing for everyone, i.e.
everyone sees it to be the same however due to circumstances and cultural backgrounds,
people perceive similar, in this case the same thing in different way.
Therefore people tend to see the same things, but due to the ways of knowing
such as emotion and perception, their understanding of the same thing differs. Each
person's perception is unique and differs from person to person; hence it can be said that
perception defines an individual. Through the ways of knowing, people form conclusions
based on their perception of things. The things themselves are the same for everyone; it is
only their understanding of them that differs.

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 Candidate Name: Kabir Malhotra
Session Number: 002151-027
T.O.K Essay

Bibliography

• All in the mind- The essence of Psychology" Published in 2001 by Whurr

Publishers. (Date accessed 10th October)

• 2009), My Father sold me to Lashkar for money: Kasab, (on-line), Bennett,

Coleman & Co Ltd, Available from:
http:/ltimesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Myfather-sold-me-to-Lashkar-for-
money-Kasab/articleshow/5234828.cms, (date accessed June 24th 2009).

• Night of the Scorpion poem in the collection studied, written by Nizzim Ezekiel.
Date accessed 20th October.

• Personal Experience on date 19th May 2009, Discussion with Jeffrey Archer,
Landmark tour.

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