Disprove the argument provided below - Essay Example

Senses and Knowledge The notion that all knowledge people have come to them via sense perception can be correct only up to a given level of acceptability. Empiricism plays a big role towards what people perceive through touch, sight, taste, hearing, and smell. However, thought and introspection also helps in shaping the knowledge of an individual. According to John Locke, one gathers knowledge from the surrounding world and indirectly from internal sources especially the mental world through introspection (Cohen 19).

Introspection occurs when one contemplates with his or her thoughts and desires, not from the five senses.In the case of a freshly made solid bee-wax, the wax has scent of a flower but the tongue perceives it as honey. This means that the perception of the senses in justification of knowledge lack coherence and consistency. When touched, it further reveals hard substances that do not have any taste of honey as perceived by the smell. The eye sees the bee wax to be cubical. Introspection thus helps in relating the perception of senses with the already known facts to justify knowledge.

In premise 3, SBW melts from the heat in fire and changes to MBW. The physical properties change entirely from perceptions in proposition 2. We are sure that we cannot be aware and ascertain any belief. The two cases present skepticism because the same bee wax cannot portray same characteristics in two different states. It is not, therefore, easy to prove any assertion in the two cases of SBW and MBW that there exists the knowledge through the senses. Senses perceive solid Bee wax, both SBW and MBW as two different things yet from the general knowledge, it is the same thing.

Consequently, it is important to consider using other methods of determining knowledge besides the senses.Work citedCohen, Martin. Philosophy for Dummies (uk Edition). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2010.Print.