True Knowledge through Sensory Experience - Essay Example

Tiffany Medrick December 2006 True Knowledge through Sensory Experience Introduction As a young child, people are madeto believe that what is actually seen, heard, felt, and tasted is true knowledge. Starting off with identification, first words usually starts in identifying people close to the child because they are familiarly seen, such as “Mama” and “Papa.” Throughout the years when the growth of the child further progresses and develops, sensory experience also progress from identifying people to objects, and even towards events. From realizing that anything round is shaped as a circle to anything associated with the sun’s color is termed as orange, man’s inherent knowledge makes him recognize past events by remembering what he saw, felt, and heard. Recent philosophical knowledge has often argued that man’s senses can often fail to gain true knowledge. This is manifested in the film Matrix, when the story’s main character, Neo, realized that what he perceived to be real is actually not real. The world he has thought to live is actually a computer simulation program that has set to make an illusion of man’s existence. Hence, in this case, if we are to gain true knowledge through sensory experiences, yet our senses can fail us, then how are we to achieve true knowledge? Gaining Knowledge through Our Senses (p. 728) According to Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (p. 728), our senses inform us of the color, weight, and consistence of bread. It is through these very senses that man have come to know the world around him, and all the things in it. This is the basic premise of empiricism, which states that: …a theory of knowledge, which emphasizes those aspects of scientific knowledge that are closely related to experience, especially formed through deliberate experimental arrangements (Wikipedia, 2006). Everything that man learns is the product of his experience. David Hume regarded lively and strong as experiences and perceptions. On the other hand, he defined less lively events as beliefs or thoughts. This could explain the fact that people have learned to define and appreciate the very essence of love, happiness, sadness, and loneliness. Love and happiness are often associated with events that thrill and excite people with someone very close of meaningful for them such as experiences related to one’s first kiss, marriage proposal, giving birth, and the like. On the other hand, sadness and loneliness are usually related to experiences such as unattained goals and aspirations, fight and arguments, sickness, and even death. It is no doubt that children would easily recognize the definition of sadness and loneliness when their parents leave home for work. Being devoid of constancy and heartfelt presence of a parent makes the child realize that he is alone in this world. In some ways, different words and concepts denote diverse things and ideas to different people because of the knowledge, or experiences they have. Hume believed that: …all belief of matter of fact or real existence is derived merely from some object, present to the memory or senses, and a customary conjunction between that and some other object” (p. 734). Hence, along with the first premise that knowledge is only gained through experience, a person’s experiences are nothing more than the contents of his own consciousness. Knowledge is rooted from the way the five senses perceive ideas, facts, events, and experiences. It is at this point that Hume distinguished the difference between feelings and thoughts. Feelings are said to be impressions made by the body, and it is from these very impressions that thoughts are made. Man’s mind cannot perceive anything if not being experienced by the body. Because of this basic premise, the color, weight and consistency of bread cannot be clearly defined if it is not touched and tasted. It is in these acts that feelings and thoughts are produced. From the impression that the bread is soft and sweet translates into feelings of happiness and satisfaction. And from these very impressions, thoughts that “the bread is delicious and can be eaten by anybody” are created. Through Hume’s empiricism, man is able to attain true knowledge, a knowledge that cannot be learned from books or other methods of knowledge. As reiterated by Hume: …it is that principle alone which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past (p. 734). Inductive reasoning alone cannot be used in learning and seeking for the truth. One typical example is that there is no certainty that “the future will resemble the past” (Wikipedia, 2006). It cannot be presupposed that through inductive reasoning that the sun will continue to rise in the east. But instead, people expect to do so because people have continuously experienced this phenomenon. In this regard, it is through experience that people came to understand nature as it is. Our Sense Can Fail Us (p. 724) As opposed to empiricism and the knowledge based on experience, Hume’s have also argued “…what is the nature of that evidence which assures us of any real existence and matter of fact, beyond the present testimony of our senses, or the records of our memory” (pg. 724). From this statement, this great philosopher distinguished two kinds of belief: the relations of ideas and the matters of fact. The former denotes beliefs that are grounded wholly on associations formed within the mind. This entails knowledge that is either or demonstratively certain such as geometry, arithmetic, and algebra. On the other hand, the latter refers to beliefs that claim to report the nature of existing things, as exemplified by the problematic propositions of natural science. The issue on the nature of the universe, and that of the black hole, can be distinguished to this kind of belief. Given the two kinds of human reason, it implies that human reason cannot truly know the nature of things because perception reveals things not as they are. Aside from empiricism, Hume declared that skepticism is inherent in human life. Knowledge is never known in truth that is why humans should always question it: It recommends an universal doubt, not only of all our former opinions and principles, but also of our very faculties; of whose veracity, say they, we must assure ourselves, by a chain of reasoning, deduced from some original principle, which cannot possibly be fallacious or deceitful. (Hume, p. 783) And because of this dilemma, Hume introduced the concept of mitigated skepticism so as to get rid of thoughts of human origin, and only include questions that people may begin to understand. This ultimately sets the limit of philosophical questioning to only those things that can be comprehended by the human mind. Needless to say, Hume did not push across the limits of the human boundaries to seek answers in unexplainable human occurrences and knowledge: I need not insist upon the more trite topics, employed by the skeptics of all ages, against the evidence of sense; such as those which are derived from the imperfection and fallaciousness of our organs, on numberless occasions; the crooked appearance of an ore in water; the various aspects of objects, according to their different distances; the double images which arise from the pressing one eye; with many other appearances of a like nature. (p. 783) The Way to Achieve True Knowledge (p. 718) As man gain knowledge from things that he can perceive, and of those in which his senses fail, Hume deducts the fact that: It is remarkable concerning the operations of the mind, that, though most intimately present to us, yet whenever they become the object of reflection, they seem involved in obscurity; nor can the eye readily find those lines and boundaries, which discriminate and distinguish them. (p. 718) Just as everything that is known is learned through experience, Hume has also emphasized the fact that nothing is ever truly known. Different words, concepts, and ideas meant different things to different people due to the knowledge, or experiences they have, as emphasized by Hume: But this universal and primary opinion of all men is soon destroyed by the slightest philosophy, which teaches us, that nothing can ever be present to the mind but an image or perception, and that the senses are only the inlets, through which these images are conveyed, without being able to produce any immediate intercourse between the mind and the object. (p 784) With this, true knowledge could only be achieved within the boundaries of man’s five senses. The sense of feeling, hearing, seeing, tasting, and smelling can touch knowledge within the realm of the physical world. Knowledge based from senses beyond these five may be hard to define. This encompasses the fact that nothing is ever truly known by man; and therein lies the fact that there is indeed the presence of an omnipotent Being who has set the limits of man. Conclusion Despite man’s limitations, man can still gain true knowledge that is set within the very limits of his boundaries. The very nature of the Earth, the Universe, and all the components in it, is still a puzzle that man has yet to fully realize and hold out as a true fact. The matrix may be a fictional world that man has created, but the possibility that it may happen cannot be ruled out. Nothing beats the knowledge based from man’s life experiences. Indeed, our senses can fail us from time to time; but with Hume’s philosophical work, he has set the standards to which knowledge can be attained Bibliography Baird & Kaufmann, From Plato to Derrida, 4th ed. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002). Humes An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (pp. 711-790) please cite this  Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. December 2006. Retrieved from website: . Read More