A Primary Role of Senses in Knowledge - Admission/Application Essay Example

A Primary Role of Senses in Knowledge  The empiricists believe that the senses have a primary role in knowledge. this view presents that reality is physical, it is not static that is it is dynamic and it is known all by senses of the individual. By saying that reality is physical the empiricists imply that everything in the world can be touched or felt in one way or the other and there is no reality beyond this. This theory of physical objects is clearly related to the senses as well because it is through the senses that we can visualize and feel the presence of physical objects. Things that we see and we touch and all the experience that our senses lead us to are true. The things that we see with our own eyes we will never deny that because to us nothing would be truer than that. The correspondence theory suits well to give senses the primary role in knowledge. According to this theory all that we think of is due to what we see and what appeals to our senses. If we see a fight going on and if someone comes along and tells us that what we are seeing is wrong we would not agree with the person. The reason behind this is that it is impossible for us to deny things which our senses clearly present to us. But again this approach has certain limitations as we see in our everyday life that some of the things that we experience in this world are beyond the scope of this theory. This is because this theory basically tells us about physical objects and things that we can actually sense and it does not give us a proper way out to ambitions, emotions, anger and feelings because there is no place for them in this approach. Thus the question arises that how will the empirical view define these non materialistic things. This approach restricts itself to what tempts to our senses and it is more about physical objects. Hence things which are in our mind and are born within us that is immaterial objects cannot be explained properly through the senses. if we believe that God exists we cannot prove it through our senses because we have never experienced him apart from the very few mystical people who say that they have experienced the presence of God. This theory can also not explain much about the mathematical and scientific approaches. This can be seen by a very simple example of digits that is when we say that five is a prime number and seven is the next prime number. These things are not physical but they only come with reasoning. Another example is that of geometrical objects which cannot be felt by us but rather they are something we know by reasoning and there is less space for the presence of reasoning in the view of empiricists. The empirical view explains that reality is dynamic and that is one thing about this approach which is not very questionable and presents a very clear and distinct view. The reason is that the world experiences changes everyday and new inventions, technology bring about new things everyday. This part of the empirical view clearly tells us about the coming into existence of new beings and the changing processes of the world. The empiricists take these three principles while referring to reality. These principles tend to explain a major part of reality but we can never deny the role of reasoning and logic in reality when it comes to mathematical and scientific approaches as well as in the belief that there is a presence of a higher being who was present before this world was created because our senses cannot explain that how this world came into existence without the presence of a higher being. Critically Analyse: Rationalist view that (essential) reality is: 1st non-physical 2nd static 3rd Known by Reason (2 1/2pages)  When we give reason a primary role in knowledge this is known as rationalism. This view puts forward that reality is non physical, static and known by reason. This view gives reason priority over the approach of senses and it claims that everything can be known by reason and senses do not play a part in it. It places scientific and mathematical reasoning and other ways of thinking and reasoning superior to other forms of knowledge and tells us that reasoning is the singular path to knowing anything. Reasoning gives us a ways to explain our thoughts, our emotions and our behavior. It is a deductive analysis which above all helps us to believe in God. Definitely we cannot see God and it is through our mind and the reasoning that there is the existence of a Supreme Being that arises within it that we know about His existence. Another example is that when the astronomers did know that there was the existence of another planet as they could see the working and the axis of the other planets in a fashion which made a person think that there really was another planet which was present so they started working upon and researching for this planet. Thus we can reach to very large conclusions if we reason properly. The rationalist view also lays great stress upon mathematical calculations and geometry. It explains that we know through reasoning and not through our senses that a triangle has three sides because we cannot feel them it is just something that we understand. But this approach of reasoning again has certain limitations. For instance, if a child does not even know that there are different shapes of objects how would he know about their mathematical calculations. And again when a child is born he does not know about mathematical calculations. It is only through experience that he learns all this. Again there are people who object to the existence of God and do not believe in it and if it is something that a person is born with why does not everyone believe in it. According to the rationalist approach reality is static and it stays the way it is. To support this we can consider a triangle which has three sides and with no change in time or space will this ever change. This example truly supports the statement but this statement needs to have flexibility as if we consider that this world is static and it stays stationary what would explain the coming of new beings in this world, the changes towards approaches. In the modern world we see that new researches, diseases and findings tend to come every now and then. What would explain this if we consider that everything is static. The rationalist view presents that reality is also non-physical. To support this they say that we know geometric objects though we have never felt them and in the same way all the scientific theories are also non physical and cannot be felt but still we know of them. There have been many limitations to the approach of rationalism and one such example is that of a Cambodian girl who got lost while she was a child. She stayed in the jungle and she was found after many years and she was found naked and was walking half bent like a monkey. She did not know any language and could not communicate. She had problems adjusting and after a short time she ran away back into the jungle. We do not see any justifiable explanation for this from the rationalist approach. This is because according to this research a human is born with the quality of reasoning and senses do not play a role in reality. If there was no role of senses in carving human nature and everything was inborn why did this girl not seem human and did not know anything about reasoning. She molded her ways according to the environment in which she stayed and everything that her senses taught her. Bibliography Between Philosophy and Social Science: Selected Early Writings By Max Horkheimer, G. Frederick Hunter Read More