The Power of Touch

Title: The Power of Touch
Class: Theory of Knowledge
Category: In Class



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            In our Theory of Knowledge class, we were assigned into groups and had to read an article regarding one type of senses. My group had the opportunity to read about the sense of touch. According to the article, the pleasure we feel from the sense of touch was evolutionary. It states that since we were babies, we had an appeal to the sense of touch. This explained our need to suck our thumbs –because we wanted to “feel them with their highly sensitive lips and tongues”. Because we found so much comfort in this sense of touch, we developed a belief that stated that the sense of touch could heal. In the article, it mentions a story of a Boston doctor going to Germany to compare orphanages to that of America. According to the article, in Germany, if all medicines did not work, the baby was taken to “Old Anna” who would comfort them by giving them piggy-back rides and carrying them. This apparently always healed the children, showing the power of the sense of touch.

            Some knowledge issues that arise from this idea that the sense of touch can heal, are as follows: how do we know that it is the actual sense of heal that is healing the children? Could it be plainly coincidence? How do we know other factors are not a significant contributor to the healing? How do we know these children are really being healed by the sense of touch? Could it be that we simply believe that they are being healed when in reality, they are still of the same health? Do they seem to be of better health because we believe them to be and want them to be? This would then be a pragmatic truth. Because we think the sense of touch will benefit us physically, we use the method of the sense of touch to heal others. How reliable are pragmatic truths? How much do they correspond with reality?