John Locke was an empiricist who believed that people could acquire
knowledge from experience. Ideas acted as raw materials and by knowing
the relation of the ideas, we got knowledge. All ideas are based on
experience but knowledge can also be justified by intuition and
demonstration. By sensation and reflection, we get sensitive,
intuitive and demonstrative knowledge with different degrees of
certainty and ways of evidence. In investigating the two main sources
of ideas of Locke, we then will explain the two kinds of knowledge
which based on reasoning by using suitable examples. The existence of
external objects by sensation will also be proved. At last, we will
introduce the dream arguments which challenge Locke certainty of
experience and explain how Locke rejected it.
Locke suggested sensation and reflection as two sources of ideas.
Sensation is a kind of external sense which is a process of external
objects convey into the mind and formed perceptions. Our sense come
across sensible objects and several distinct perceptions of the
objects convey into our mind through various sense organs. Thus, we
have ideas of hot, cold, black, white, soft and hard, which we call
them sensible qualities. This source of idea depends wholly upon our
senses and gives us sensitive knowledge. On the other hand, reflection
is the internal sense, which is operation of the perception of our own
mind. The soul comes to reflect and consider the ideas it receives
from sensation by operation. By perception, thinking, doubting,
reasoning, willing and all other different kinds of operations in our
mind, we can understand the incoming sensible ideas. By refle...
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... and pain. For
example, the pain I receive from hitting by Dr. Cheng in dream is
different from actually hitting by him. The pleasure and pain are as
great as happiness and misery that for certain is different from being
in dream. We review the experience in dreams in real life and for sure
it is unclear and gives us no pain.
To conclude, sensation and reflection gives us ideas, and by knowing
the relation of ideas, we have knowledge. Sensation is the foundation
of all other knowledge and by reasoning, we can have intuitive and
demonstrative knowledge. The consistence of experience and direct
perception of external object by sensation proved the existent of that
object. By acknowledging the difference of pain and pleasure received
from the real world and in dream, we can definitely realize we are in
dream of not.
Have you ever experienced a dream or a nightmare that seemed like reality? Most people in the world today would say that they have. Although this realistic dream experience does not occur often, when it does, clear distinctions are hard to make between the dream and reality. Theories exist that explain dreams as our subconscious
John Locke's Theories in The Declaration of Independence. When looking at the Declaration of Independence and the justifications which Jefferson used in order to encourage the dissolve of the ties between the United Colonies and Great Britain, it becomes apparent how much of the theories of John Locke that Jefferson used as the basis for his argument. Focusing particularly on the second paragraph of the Declaration, the arguments for the equality of each man and the formation and destruction of governments come almost directly from Locke's Second Treatise of Government. The other arguments in the Declaration of Independence deal primarily with each citizen's rights and the natural freedoms of all men, two areas that Locke also spent much time writing on.
This essay discussed John Locke’s view about the Will’s being Free and how he concluded that the Will was not free. This is an outcome that he discovered while writing On Power on An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. I have offered reasons for why this is an argument that seems to contradict itself, which makes it inconsistent and unstable.
Locke, an indirect realist, explores our immediate perceptions and with this attempts to draw a line between ideas and qualities, just how these are different entities. Sometimes referred to as Representative Theory, according to Locke, we are aware only of our ideas, these being things existing “in our minds”, sensations created. Our perceptions are indirect and their qualities, these are the causal properties of physical objects that then cause those sensations. This dualistic account
Review all beliefs for clarity and coherence.”(South University Online) Different from Descrate and his philosophy, empiricist John Locke had different thoughts on the mind and body. Locke felt that what really lead to knowledge of things was our experiences beginning at the time we are born, he believed that our brains were blank with no knowledge or information and only existed until our senses activated at the time we were born. Locke believed that as an individual lives life and grows older we are then filled with experiences that allows our mind to communicate with our bodies, something that Descrate was unable to answer since he believed that the mind and the body were totally separate. Locke also thought that some things just are for example, an object just is, whether it be broken, dissolved, melted, cut it just is because it remains the same, same volume, ounces and weight, this is known as the primary qualities, the secondary qualities he believed were created in the
Throughout history, there has been abundant ways in where philosophers try to change people’s perspective on certain topics. One of the well known men was John Locke; he was an English philosopher (1632-1704) who had different positive views regarding human nature. In addition, Locke strongly believed in natural rights of life, liberty, & property, and thought that all humans are all the same and that we are all born free, to do what we all desire without having to ask for permission to anyone, and also equal which meant that no none is to have no natural or political authority over one another. Thus, Locke believes that we are all born with three natural rights. He also held the belief that government has a moral obligation to guarantee
In his article, Now That’s Rich, Paul Krugman discusses the state of the wealthy in America. He provides a critical account of the work ethic of the 1 percent, asserting that many of the country’s wealthy do not work in proportion to the money they have. He states, “The goal of [promoting the rise in college graduates] is to soften the picture, to make it seem as if we’re talking about ordinary white-collar professionals who get ahead through education and hard work. But many Americans are well-educated and work hard…Yet they don’t get the big bucks.” This claim illustrates a disparity in the economic system: hard work does not equate financial success. Krugman expands on this by explaining that wealth acquired by this group of people was only achieved because money they inherited. “These days a lot of top money managers’ income comes not from investing other people’s money but from returns on their own accumulated wealth—that is, the reason they make so much is the fact that they’re already very rich.” Krugman demonstrates a cyclical pattern of accumulated wealth, leaving no room for individuals of lower means to reach this status. Moreover, the advantage of the rich leads to a society that is “dominated by wealth,” and increases the gap between the rich and every one else. Krugman ultimately points out the hypocrisy of the rich’s resistance to increased taxes and asks his readers to think critically about how the rich arrived where they are.
Without perception, in our illusions and hallucinations, we lose “our sense of beings,” (Capra). Lost in “isolation,” (Capra) perhaps lost within our own illusion, our abstractions, we lose the ability to judge, to dichotomize, reality from illusions, right from wrong.
Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience (Locke, 1690/1947, bk. II, chap. 1, p.26).
In meditation one of Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes presents the framework for his philosophy. Recalling unjustified views that he held as a child, Descartes presents his goal as the search for beliefs that are beyond doubt. If we can find what these beliefs are, Descartes posits, we have found a stable foundation with which to build off of in the pursuit of all further knowledge. In pursuit of this goal, Descartes outlines his methods: he will assume nothing, and only accept as true that which cannot be doubted for any reason, ridiculous or otherwise. Two arguments are presented to provide a seed of doubt into as many of our beliefs as possible. The first argument is often refereed to as the Dream Argument. When we dream while asleep, the things that the we perceive are often not in accordance with reality; suppose we dream that we are flying though in reality we are merely lying down in bed for example. Descartes argues that, despite whatever distinctions we thi...
Our mind then processes that perception into an idea. A great example I can give is from my childhood. I was playing outside by my elderly neighbor and she said, “Stop,” and I did, which made her tell me I was very obedient. I didn’t know what that word meant so I looked it up and did not like the definition. Ever since that day I tried to not be obedient unless I wanted to be or absolutely needed to be. I heard something I didn’t know anything about, researched it and reflected on it and decided I didn’t want to be that. My experience makes me agree with Locke because I was able to process what happened to me and decide for
John Locke, Berkeley and Hume are all empiricist philosophers that believe in different things. They have things in common such as the three anchor points; The only source of genuine knowledge is sense experience, reason is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge unless it is grounded in the solid bedrock of sense experience and there is no evidence of innate ideas within the mind that are known from experience. The relationship between our thoughts and the world around us consisted of concepts which were developed from these philosophers. I have argued that Locke, Berkeley and Hume are three empiricists that have different believes.
Again, through consciousness we can correlate our experiences and our actions. Each moment we experience becomes a memory. The particular way the our memories are distinguished from another persons account of the event is how our “self” intercepts it. One can also relate our “self” is the memories to our same “self” in the present. As Locke also examined in his writing Of Identity and Diversity, we can repeat the ideas of our past actions with the same consciousness that we do our present actions and our future actions. This demonstrated the ability of how our “self” can endure all of the many beautiful and excruciating happenings in
John Locke’s Essay on Human Understanding his primary thesis is our ideas come from experience, that the human mind from birth is a blank slate. (Tabula Rasa) Only experience leaves an impression in our brain. “External objects impinge on our senses,” which interpret ate our perceptions of various objects. The senses fill the mind with content. Nothing can exist in the mind that was not first experienced by the senses. Dualism resembles Locke’s theory that your mind cannot perceive something that the senses already have or they come in through the minds reflection on its own operation. Locke classifies ideas as either simple or complex, simple ideas being the building blocks for complex ideas.
D. W. Hamlyn - author. Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Place of Publication: Sensation and Perception: A History of the Philosophy of Perception. Contributors: London. Publication Year: 1961. Page Number: iii.