Experiencing sense perceptions first hand is a great place to begin answering the question, “to what extent can our senses be trusted?”. To do this, G11 TOK students stood blindfolded as their trusted partner introduced five types of fruit to two of their Sense doors, first the smelling sense and then the tasting sense. Pears, apples, nectarines, oranges, lemons, and so on were smelled and tasted, as students used there senses and memories to label each fruit. As one might expect, we found that the smelling sense was not nearly as reliable as the tasting sense.
Through this experience, TOK students gained a clearer understanding of what sense perception is and to what extent we can trust our senses.
