“When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems begin to resemble nails.” (Abraham Maslow) How might this apply to ways of knowing, as tools, in the pursuit of knowledge?
Ways of knowing embody memory, language, emotion, intuition, sense perception, reason, imagination, and faith, which take part in the process of acquiring knowledge. For instance, language can be considered as a means of exchanging the knowledge with each other and emotion is a way to express our personal feelings and convey the message to other people. We are able to use these ways of knowing as a tool to obtain knowledge, therefore understanding the world around us. Speaking of tool, the quote above might suggests that if we only have a hammer, thus it becomes the only way to solve all the problems, which means all the problems are naturally seemed as nails in our mind, even if they are essentially not. In this case, the hammer impacts the viewpoint towards all the problems. That being said, we are likely to determine the things around us, even the world, based on the tool we are holding. This concept provides an idea that if ways of knowing is conceived as a tool, like a hammer, it will affect how we evaluate the problem first, consequently impacting the way we solve the problems and even shaping the way in which we think about the world around us. Sense perception, one way of knowing, is defined as a mechanism by how we obtain knowledge on stimulation of senses. In simple terms, we use senses to look and feel, in order to understand the world. Seeing and hearing are two common materials contributing to sense perception, which play a significant role in impacting how we think about the world. An example of it happened to me, which made me strongly feel the power of sense perception on the view towards the world. Since now I am studying in Canada, a multi-culture country, my friends at school are from all over the world, who have different skin and hair color.