Perception and Knowledge

There are times in our lives when we can not recognize the difference between perceiving something and actually knowing something. Many times you can be faced with a circumstance in which you think that you know something, but it is only being perceived. Being able to tell the difference from the two can be very crucial. Obviously depending on the seriousness of the circumstance, you can have differing and even negative consequences when these words are misused.

The ability to know something is based entirely behind facts and support. To know is to have absolute and concrete evidence. If you know the ending of a book that you just started reading, that would mean that you were told the ending by someone who has read the book, (or you must have seen the movie they made out of the book). Your knowledge of the story's ending is only based on some facts that you know. Without actually having this substantial evidence you do not know of the story's ending, but you are merely perceiving it.

The act of perceiving a books ending is more so based on a series of assumptions and inferences. To make a perception of the book's ending, you may have read some of it, and can make an educated guess. Or maybe you have heard rumors of how the story has a surprising finish. Such inferences would be perceptions.

In a way, the two words can be very similar. Both are using intelligence and making conclusions on a given topic. While you can either know or perceive the ending of a story, you are still concluding the end of the story though you have or have not read it. However, they are different in that one is based off of opinion and the other is based off of facts. The two words are also connected in chronology. In order to perceive something, you do not have to know something. Perceiving would be knowing in a lesser form. Therefore, in order to know something, you have to perceive it. Though you may have been given the ending of the story, you still have to perceive that this is the ending. When knowing, you may even subconsciously perceive. You do not purposely make inferences, but in order to fully trust that you know the story, you do anyway.

When it comes to knowing, it obviously generated from some clear evidence. However, a way in which you know something can be more superior than another. If someone who read the given book sat you aside and told you the ending to it, you are knowledgeable of the ending. However, this can fall inferior to other knowing. If you have personally read the ending of the book, your knowledge of the outcome is far more superior. Therefore, one can perceive that the knowledge of a topic gained from personal experience is always going to be superior to the other forms. The only thing that makes it forever superior is because you were a primary source. You saw it with your own eyes. Therefore, in your own opinion, this knowledge will outweigh the rest.