Perception And The Natural Sciences

Abigail Ross Dr. Mendell Philosophy 8 November 22, 2014 Throughout Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he argues against the philosophy of his time; that all knowledge comes from the senses. Initially, he reasons that we can establish whether or not we are dreaming purely from our actions and experiences. However, after further scrutiny, realizes that we do not have any way of distinguishing between being awake and being asleep. Descartes’ dream argument sparked the idea that sense perception does not convey accurate information.

| The study of knowledge: What constitutes knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible

Descartes aim throughout the first segment of his Meditations to overthrow existing foundations of knowledge and encourages readers to remove prior knowledge and prejudices in order to fully accept the new foundations which he aims to establish. The method of doubt is used to find beliefs that can serve as a new foundation for knowledge. Only beliefs that are certain, immune from doubt, can perform this function. Descartes argued that what we believe on the basis of the senses cannot meet the standard. Consequently, he concluded, we do not know anything on the basis of our senses and the dream argument is formed.

To truly think about knowledge brings about some interesting thought. When asked to think about knowledge, most individuals concern themselves solely with what they know such as certain subjects, theories or facts. In the grand scheme of things, this way of thought is seemingly only minute or even superficial. As human beings, we do not always considered how we come to know what we know. We often place are acquisition of knowledge lower in a taxonomy of importance. All too often, individuals take knowledge and its power for granted. However, individuals like René Descartes and his work, The Meditations, provide a deep exploration of knowledge and all its facets. For every individual or scholar this work is very important in that it causes

In the first meditation, through providing three arguments (waves) as to the nature of our inability to distinguish reality from illusion, Descartes makes a convincing argument as to why we would, prior to his reasoned proof of existence of God, disregard all a posteriroi knowledge as a viable source of information abou the world. In the first wave Descartes questions the legitammacy of the information provided by the senses. He provides the example of the way in which our sense of perspective funtions, stating ‘senses occasionally decieve us about things that are veru small or very far away’ , to call into question that which we so often rely on to provide us with an accurate account of ‘reality’. Descartes’ method demands that if reason is to doubt a foundation then all knowledge based on that foundation should be rejected; of the senses he articulates having ‘occcasionlly found that they decieved [him]’ following with the statement that ‘it is prudent never to trust those who have decieved us’ . In this way Descartes is seeking to undermine empiricism, his abandoning of he sense principle is utilied to porve that senses are our main soucrce of error.

Descartes stresses the importance of where knowledge is found. He emphasizes that knowledge does not rely on a person’s senses but rather applying the ability to reason their thoughts. Descartes further explains that people cannot fully rely on their senses because those senses are flawed when attempting to describe the ultimate truth. Therefore, when a person relies on their senses to describe something, it is a different answer when compared to someone else’s senses. If people follow this theory of following their senses only, then there will be no gain of discovering the

Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, based his beliefs off of one piece of knowledge that he found to be absolutely certain; “I now know that even bodies are perceived not by the senses or by imagination but by the intellect alone, not through their being touched or seen but through their being understood; and this helps me to understand that I can perceive my own mind more easily and clearly than I can anything else” (Descartes, 1639, Second Mediation). Descartes explains that all knowledge other than the answer to what one’s self is, is questionable. As a philosopher, he seeks answers to the remainder of knowledge despite being unsure of the validity of the answers he finds.

Our knowledge of the external world is always subject to debate, no matter the philosophical preference of those who argue it. John Locke, the founder of empiricism, has an excellent argument for how we as humans acquire knowledge. His argument states that we can only acquire knowledge from external experiences. (Locke 238). Essentially saying, that we must experience something prior in order to have knowledge about it. Rene Descartes, would disagree with Locke in the way we acquire knowledge. Descartes believes that knowledge of the external world can be acquired from intuition and deduction into showing that God exists and therefore, the external world exists. (Descartes 203) In this paper, I will disprove Descartes’ theory of knowledge

The author mentions Descarters' views on the process of human knowledge, he mentions how Descartes "did not understand that the machinery of the mind can only transform knowledge, but never originate it, unless it be

Empiricist philosophers such as John Locke believe that knowledge must come from experience. Others philosophers such as Descartes believe that knowledge is innate; this way of thinking is used by rationalist. In this paper I will discuss the difference between Descartes rationalism in his essays "The Meditations" and Locke's empiricism in his essays "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding". I will then lend my understanding as to what I believe as the ultimate source of knowledge.

He finds it plausible that we are all living in a dream and we have never experienced reality. He can no longer give any credence to his senses and finds himself in a place of complete uncertainty. Descartes comes to the conclusion that nothing can be perceived more easily and more evidently than his own mind. He has discovered that even bodies are not accurately perceived by the senses or the faculty of imagination, and are only accurately being perceived by the intellect. He also realizes that they are not distinguished through being touched, smelled, or tasted, but by being understood alone. (An apple is an apple because our mind tells us that it is an apple.) It is the faculty of reason that gives the knowledge and lets the mind know the truths and essences of objects. Descartes assumes that all of us can be decided by our senses, someone can see something far away, and then discover that is not what we thought it was. Or even a oar when is immerse half in water attempt to be bent, but instead is straight. Descartes think that we cannot always be sure of what we sense, and gives the example of himself seated by the fire.

I feel that Descartes underestimated the role of the senses as it pertains to knowledge. The senses by themselves are insufficient to define knowledge since they are often deceived as Descartes expressed in the “Wax Argument”. However, our senses do help us understand the true nature of things.

The question on where knowledge comes from has been a controversial argument for many philosophers, and is the main question René Descartes tries to answer in Meditations in First Philosophy. The epistemological argument on the source of knowledge offers two different explanations; the first being the empiricist view and the second being the rationalist view. Empiricism, also referred to as the blank slate view, is the belief that sensory experience is the only fundamental source of knowledge. It is believed that as humans, we are born into this world with no prior knowledge and learn solely from the sensory input of the physical world. The second view, the rationalist view, is the belief that our knowledge is innate; that we are born with all the information that we need.

Perception is defined as how you look at others and the world around you. Being able to select, organize and intercept information starts the perceptual process. Perception affects the way people communicate with others. An individual’s pattern of thinking can affect their perception of others. Most people communicate best with people of similar cultures.