Week 3: Knowledge

What do you make of empiricism's claim that all of our knowledge is based on the use of our senses? What areas of knowledge do you think support this theory? Are there any types of knowledge (mathematical knowledge, for example?) that you think are a problem for this theory?

What do you make of empiricism's claim that all of our knowledge is based on the use of our senses?

   I don’t agree with the empiricism’s that our knowledge is based on our senses because as Descrates explain to us, if we find that what we know is based on the impulses transmitted to our brain then knowledge and reality can be whatever someone wants us to believe. Also Plato had the same observation in “The Allegory of The Cave” when he mentions the prisoners chained to view the stories projected by the superior people. That was their knowledge and it was based on what they see and hear. Empiricists argue that because of our experiences, we obtain knowledge.
When I was growing up, my parents were the type that kept me home when school was finished; I wasn’t able to go out and have my own experiences, so by observing my surroundings as I walked home, my mind took all the bits and pieces of my observations and gave me a knowledge of life in whole. Also knowing of God cannot be experienced, it doesn’t have a smell, or taste, and we can’t touch it. But we do know that God exists. I know that every time something goes my way, I always say ‘thank God’ and when I’m in need of help I always say ‘God please’. Our knowledge of God is limited but we do believe in God.


What areas of knowledge do you think support this theory? Are there any types of knowledge (mathematical knowledge, for example?) that you think are a problem for this theory?
   To support this theory that knowledge is based on our senses, we can simply look outside at the people wearing jackets. We feel cold; therefore we find ourselves a jacket. We see someone getting pulled over by a corrections officer, so we slow down. Some Knowledge can be based on our senses. In Chemistry, touching an acid may cause your hand to burn and fatally damage you skin cells, but what happens to knowledge we can’t always touch, see and smell. Science is a subject where predicting an outcome isn’t always the best idea. Our senses may tell us the solution may smell sweet but it could be deadly if we drank it. We cannot see atoms with our naked eye, and there are some people that don’t get the chance to look at one under a microscope, but knowledge of them still exists. For example, how many times have you wanted to try a dish at a restaurant that the person near you is having? The next time you go to the same restaurant, you try it and don’t find it as tasteful as it looked and smelled. That may be a problem when empiricists say that knowledge entirely is based on our senses.

Week 2: Descrates

What do you think about methodological skepticism? Do we ever follow this procedure in our daily lives, or do we do the opposite. In other words, do we tend to believe things until it becomes impossible to believe them, rather than doubting everything we can? If so, does this suggest that methological skepticism is not a good strategy?

     Methodological skepticism is an approach that removes all prior beliefs and knowledge in attempt to find further knowledge. The idea of brain washing my knowledge I have already obtained, in order to learn a higher knowledge, terrifies me. I wouldn’t take part in methodological skepticism because it would seem that in the quest for further knowledge, I would find myself at some point believing in what I already know. Removing what I already know in order to learn it once more seems like a waste of time for me. Instead, I would explore other procedures and combine what I know to that of what I don’t in order to get a conclusion. As humans, we are consistently thinking of ways to improve our lives. In our daily lives, we don’t usually stop to think of all the possibilities and choices we can explore in completing a task or assignment. However, if we use what we already know and combine it with other possibilities, we may be one step closer to success. For example, Thomas Edison tried 100 times to make the electric light bulb and failed, people thought of it as impossible, but by using what Edison already knew and combining his beliefs with what he didn’t know, Thomas Edison was eventually successful in the invention of the light bulb. Methodological skepticism is a procedure that’s not really practiced in our everyday lives because people tend to be a lot more rational about daily tasks.

     Methodological skepticism in today’s day and age wouldn’t be such a great idea because of the drastic economic and political pressures. To question all beliefs wouldn’t seem practical and would make you seem “mentally ill” in another person’s eyes. Descrates had much free time to question the beliefs his reality was based on. As humans, we tend to dig deeper into the ground when be believe “impossible” comes our way (realistic views). Without the inertia to look further, as we combine our current knowledge of reality to new ones, we would’ve grown to be extinct by now.

The Allegory of the Cave - Week 1

In the Allegory of the Cave, Socrates suggests that, without philosophical education, we are all like the prisoners in the cave. What are your thoughts on this? How is philosophy supposed to be liberating? Do you think Socrates is right to be so pessimistic about life without philosophy?

       According to Socrates, the path of a philosophical education is a hard one to walk. Without philosophical education, we as humans lack that pursuit and Instead of gaining knowledge, we act like the prisoners in the cave and do exactly what we are told to do. Our society can be compared to the society of the prisoners. From the moment they were born, the prisoners were chained up so that they could not look in any direction except straight ahead. Shadows were cast behind them and they thought these shadows were real. For them a tree was nothing more but grey shadows and the stories being illustrated was their reality. They were told to never turn their heads and the prisoners obeyed every command. Our society today follows those same rules. When we are born, we are taught that we have to go to school, get an education, find a job, and then get married. No one questions this order of life because that is how it has always been done. It is what our parents did and their parents before that. Out of the entire group of prisoners, there was just one man who questioned this. He wanted to know what was on the opposite side of the wall and he took the risk to find out. He was not like all of the other prisoners who believed everything they were told. He wanted to gain more knowledge and his curiosity is what led him to achieve his pursuit of wisdom or philosophical education.  If he just followed his society and lived his life according to their norms, he would have never attained philosophical education. Is there a higher truth in our society that exists? I would sometimes question my parents when they explained the way they were brought up. At times, I would even revolt and try things my way to see if I can come up with a better outcome. I believe we are living in a society where sophists are roaming around telling us that there is no higher truth, no other reality, life is the way we live it now and there is no other knowledge to gain from this.  

       I believe Philosophy to be liberating because the prisoner who went in search of the truth attained freedom. He achieved freedom from his bonds, freedom from his life in the cave, and he even found happiness in his freedom. At first he rejected what he first saw and thought to himself that this can’t be real. However, after going into the light and being blinded by the sun, facing the pain on his eyes, he became liberated and realized that there was a higher truth.  The prisoner was amazed to find out a whole other world existed and wanted to share his treasure with the rest of his society but no one took him seriously. They all thought he was a fool and had lost his mind. If they had listened to him, they would have also been liberated and they would have shared the same happiness and joy he found in a life without bonds. However, because they did not want to go against their rules of life, they ended up living a miserable life compared to the prisoner who escaped. Attaining the knowledge of philosophy may also do the same for us. As I explained, in our society we wake up and go to work or school, from there we shop and go home. We may participate in an activity every so often, but our lifestyles don’t change. Socrates mentions the sun as the ‘good’ and therefore liberating the prisoner once he was introduced to the light. If we were to be liberated from the teachings of philosophy, what consequences would we face in today’s society? Would we also have a trial as Socrates did for our philosophical education?

       I do agree with Socrates that life is pessimistic without philosophy but as the cliché goes, “Ignorance is Bliss”. In his story, the prisoners in the cave were leading a miserable life. They lived in darkness and in chains that prevented them from moving. They were unhappy but were too afraid to change anything. When the escaped prisoner came back to help them escape in order to live a better and happier life, they laughed at him. They were scared to admit that the prisoner could actually be telling the truth. It was easier for them to pretend that he was crazy rather than to come together and change their way of life. If they had the wisdom, they would have known the prisoner was telling the truth and they would have all lead optimistic lives instead of pessimistic lives. I believe in today’s society we do reside in a cave blinded from the higher truth. As I said before if we were to gain the knowledge that Socrates wanted us to be aware of, how would we be able to get along in society? Just like Socrates, we would have an enmity with many people for questioning their wisdom and then get in trouble (arrested, ticket, death sentence). Without philosophy we are constantly taking orders from others to live blind life in the dark, Socrates believes that if we face the pain to see the brighter truth, we can be liberated. I do agree that life can be pessimistic without philosophy, but in today’s society, how will we know when we are liberated?