What the senses contribute to
What the senses contribute to knowledge? (Descartes, Leibniz versus Locke, Berkley)In order to discuss what the senses contribute to knowledge one must first identify the senses used and their contribution to the human learning process. The human senses sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste are all commonplace in our everyday life, one must therefore not forget their initial importance in general prior to considering their contribution toward human learning and knowledge. In assessing the importance of these senses one can make the 17th century argument of Empiricism versus Rationalism, in other words one can draw on the thoughts and theories of Locke in opposition to the beliefs of Descartes. The argument between Empiricism and Rationalism can be broken down to the simple form of Locke's Imperialism being that all knowledge derives from the senses, against Descartes' belief that information can be known in advance of experience through innate ideas. Locke defined knowledge as "the perception of the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of any of our ideas". The ideas are therefore derived from our sensors that act as receptors to a given stimulus. Locke stated that "The senses are the most important
He also claimed in book II that the mind "turns its view inward upon itself and observes its own actions about those ideas it has (and) takes from thence other ideas" This statement is important in that it claims that during the process of reflection, the mind observes its own action. Cartesian thoughts' of innate ideas were not only part of Descartes philosophy; other great thinkers followed similar paths of though and criticized Locke on his lack of solidity throughout his theories. Descartes was educated from an early age at a Jesuit college; it was probably due to this early religious education that Descartes incorporate the thought of God not only as an innate idea but also in many of his woks and theories. Unlike Descartes however Leibniz proposes that the spirit is in fact passive in the heart of conception, and perception. Therefore as one can see the thought of what the real contribution of the senses toward learning and knowledge was at that time much argued by different philosophers presenting opposing arguments and explanations. 5) Furthermore Locke argues that it "is near a contradiction, to say that there are truths imprinted on the soul, which it perceives or understands not. Descartes also in his theory cannot make the certainty of the soul having anything to do directly with the human body. Descartes separated the body and mid as completely different types of substance, which according to Descartes both came into contact in the brain at the pineal gland. Locke wrote his essay concerning human understanding in 1690 offering the renowned metaphor comparing the mind to "blank slate on which experience writes". Nonetheless it is clear that Locke saw the senses as the basic receptors to learning from the experiences. They are known to be primary because the senses consistently find them to be the same, in other words they are perceptions that cannot be altered by factors such as heat or light, which might, for example, affect the colour which the object or stimulus could be perceived. This statement clearly and concisely describes his belief that human understanding ultimately derives from experiences that are perceived through the senses, not through some kind of predetermined reaction. In a similar approach, Locke argued that we have no innate moral or practical principles, for there is no universal agreement about such principles. Descartes chose the soul as the judging entity of man since he believed that because mankind, due to the imperfections of the human world, could not perceive the idea of God, there had to be a separate spiritual link between the two in order for the principle of God to be innate. A typical moral principle that may be considered by many, including Descartes, as an innate moral, is the belief in God or some other symbol of religion.
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