Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey Balbina Cervantes A01022482 Prof. Karla Aguirre ToK Essay
“Humans are pattern-seeking animals and we are adept at finding patterns whether they exist or not” (adapted from Michael Shermer). Discuss knowledge questions raised by this idea in two areas of knowledge.
The human mind is an intricate and captivating organ. Its fit for the most mind blowing deeds of calculation, ready to quickly match patterns with almost no data to patterns put away years or even decades back. From the snapshot of birth, the cerebrum is prepared to hunt down and perceive patterns. Truth be told, a lot of its processing power is given to only this task. Our Natural Science is important since thanks to the way we are designed and how our brain normally works we have this tendency of seeking for patterns, and so History enter in this search of patterns because it sets us a record of previous ones. But still this might not mean that all the patterns that we find are meaningful and so relevant for our knowledge. Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or associations in irregular or aimless information. The term is ascribed to Klaus Conrad by Peter Brugger who characterized it as the "unmotivated seeing of associations" joined by a specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness, yet it has come to speak to the human inclination to look for examples in arbitrary data when all is said in done, for example, with betting and
paranormal phenomena. In 2008, Michael Shermer authored "patternicity", characterizing it as "the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise". In The Believing Brain (2011), Shermer says that we have "the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency", which Shermer calls "agenticity". And so this question arises “Does all the patterns we find help in the creation of knowledge?”
Natural Sciences then has an interaction to why we are pattern-seeking animals since it studies our own physiology, obviously, so anything in medication that is included with how our bodies function likewise falls into the natural sciences, as opposed to human sciences. Dr. Bernard D. Beitman has a neurobiological investigation of coincidence that rests upon the cerebrum requirement for request and consistency. Incidents alarm the mind to conceivable causal connections between occasions. Through the dread of such connections, the world shows up as more deliberate and more unsurprising. Despite the fact that the scientific strategy has made an orderly method for deciding the legitimacy of conceivable causal associations between occasions, the human mind perseveres in its regularly non-logical understandings of happenstances. And so this shows us that our brain, for biological reasons, makes us pattern seeking animals. Still we can observe that even though we are designed to look for patterns, that doesn’t mean that all the ones we find are actually meaningful. For example when people claim to have seen Jesus in the toasted part of a bread or tortilla. This is clearly a meaningfulness pattern regarding our knowledge because the fact that a
tortilla burned with the impression of a man doesn’t bring anything new to our shared knowledge or personal knowledge. And this is because even though we could considered it as a chemical reaction in the case of Natural Sciences, the fact that the “image of a man” was formed would be purely coincidental and so would not affect any scientifical fact/knowledge.
On the other hand if you are a religious person then this kind of “appearances” as patterns, in this case in a burned tortilla will probably give you more faith on your religion. Normally religious people, especially christians tend to say, that their God is always with you or may He be with you. So a pattern like this will make anyone put its complete trust and/or confidence not only in this kind of statements but also in your faith towards the whole entity a religion represents. Also patterns helps us ask new questions and not necessarily in natural sciences, it can also helps us develop new questions of religion, and in this case through this questions we would generate either shared knowledge or personal knowledge or even both. Because even if the pattern were to be disprove new knowledge would come from this disapproval.
History clearly is another area of knowledge involved in our pattern-seeking behaviour. And with this point I want to refer to human’s behavior patterns, which have been repeated in different periods of time, and even though we know the consequences we still repeat them. People look for solace in the commonplace. Freud called this repetition compulsion, which he broadly characterized as "the yearning to come back to a before condition of things."
This takes shape in basic errands. Maybe you watch your most loved film again and again, or pick the same entrée at your most loved restaurant. More unsafe practices incorporate over and over dating individuals who may sincerely or physically manhandle you. Alternately utilizing drugs when overcome with negative situations. Freud was more keen on the unsafe practices that individuals continued returning to, and trusted that it was straightforwardly connected to what he named "the death drive," or the yearning to not exist anymore.
In any case, there might be an alternate reason. It may be the case that a significant number of us create designs throughout the years, whether positive or negative, that get to be distinctly imbued. We each make a subjective world for ourselves and find what works for us. In times of stress, outrage, or another enthusiastic high, we rehash what is well known and what feels safe. This makes rumination of contemplations and also negative examples in responses and practices. For instance, somebody who battles with frailties and desire will find that when his loved one doesn't give back a call or content quickly, his mind starts to meander to negative and flawed contemplations. The musings start to gather and candidly
overpower the individual, which prompts to false allegations and unexpected damage to the relationship.
Disregarding not having any desire to respond thusly, the individual has made an example over years that then gets comfortable to him. To respond in an unexpected way, albeit all the more decidedly, would feel remote. When somebody has accomplished something a similar route for a considerable length of time, he or she will keep on doing along these lines, regardless of the possibility that it causes hurt for both herself as well as other people.
Individuals likewise return to prior states if the conduct is in any capacity fulfilling, or on the off chance that it affirms negative self-convictions. For somebody who dispenses self-hurt in a period of passionate trouble, it is a conduct that quickly soothes the agony regardless of the possibility that later on the individual feels disgrace over it. In the case of a man who constantly enters harsh connections, we may find that he or she is exceedingly shaky and does not trust that he or she is deserving of being administered to.
It takes years for individuals to create maladaptive patterns, propensities, and monotonous decisions, and it might likewise take years to reshape them into something that gets to be distinctly worth returning to.
Still we can observe that once a pattern is created no matter the context it can be repeated, for example Hitler’s proposals and the fact that people were amused by
them because they found themselves in a moment of uncertainty after the WW1 and finally someone was coming up with possible solutions. We can see the same pattern happening right now in 2016 with the presidential election of the USA where Trump offered possible solutions during a moment of uncertainty for the country and managed to win the elections because he knew how to make people believe his solutions are what the country need. And the worst part is that even though people have seen/heard the ethical consequences of this kind of proposals and behaviors they don’t care about the ethical implications of their actions.
Still this doesn’t mean that people can’t change the patterns in their behaviour, there are therapies that serve to this purpose. For example cognitive-behavioral therapy , dialectical behavior therapy, and rational emotive behavior therapy can give compelling treatment courses to reshaping thought designs that prompt to maladaptive practices. These sorts of remedial methodologies concentrate on
conveying attention to intellectual twists, unreasonable convictions, and negative thought tracks.
In my personal knowledge I can say that I used to bite my nails, and after using an special nail polish that tasted horrible I managed to stop biting my nails, because my perception of having a relief from stress by eating my nails changed completely because I started relating it with something I didn’t like (the taste). So it is possible to stop a certain pattern in your behaviour, of course you have to be persistent and patient, because results don’t come from one day to the next but with perseverance you can manage it.
In conclusion I believe that patterns do apport valuable knowledge from personal to shared knowledge, but it depends completely on which area of knowledge and way of knowing you are centering on as we saw in this essay because it doesn’t apply to all of them in all the cases. Sadly even though we acquire knowledge that doesn’t necessarily means that we will use it in a similar situation to avoid the same mistakes made in the past. But then again this also depends on the circumstance and the perseverance someone has to make a change.
Word count: 1584 words
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A. DeName, K. (2015). Repetition Compulsion: Why Do We Repeat the Past? | World of Psychology. Retrieved November 22, 2016, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/29/repetition-compulsion-why-d o-we-repeat-the-past/
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Sims, A. (2015, December 10). Donald Trump compared to Adolf Hitler after 'complete shutdown of Muslims' comments. Retrieved November 22, 2016, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/donald-trump -compared-to-adolf-hitler-after-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-comments-a67 67941.html
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