Acquiring Knowledge Essay

Knowledge way power the whole field craves for noesis, to discern things, to understand, to addle accurate calculations and to make wise decisions. But philosophers since ancient cartridge clips struggle with the question ascertaining how association is acquired. Is it through the physical senses of touch, smell, hearing, seeing, and taste? Is it through reason al maven? trine great philosophers tackled this question, they atomic number 18 Descartes, Locke, and Kant and all three of them presented three different methodologies when it comes to getting knowledge. The pursuit is serious and intense that a whole body of knowledge is dedicated to finding out the answers. It is called epistemology and these three philosophers leave behind serve as guides in the quest to know the true statement about knowledge.Descartes Rene Descartes is said to be the father of modern philosophy. He attempted to break with the philosophical traditions of his mean solar day by rejecting th e Aristotelian philosophy of the schools which is the authority of tradition and the authority of the senses (Craig, 1998). He developed a methodology on how to investigate nature by reducing complex problems to simpler mavins and then analyzed further using forthwith intuition (Craig, 1998). Therefore, his main argument is that by mere thinking unity plenty discover solutions to problems. Interestingly Descartes had to die to his old beliefs and everything that he considered justness in order for him to determine once and for all that indeed at that place is a way to discover truth by mere single-valued function of intuition and non the reliance of the senses and traditions handed down from one multiplication to the next. His first guinea pig was him self, he had to doubt his humans to know the truth, and not simply believe that he exist beca map society tells him that he does exist. He had what inventors and scientists called a eureka signification or a moment of great insight, when he finally blurted out Ego cogito, ergo conglomeration a statement in Latin famously translated as I think, thitherfore I am (Broughton, 2008). This was the breakthrough that he was looking for and he economic consumptiond it as a foundation from where he would build upon his possibility of knowledge skill. Descartes idea is cutting edge at that time. He was one of the first to establish the principle of gaining knowledge and studying things that are beyond the capabilities of the quin senses. There are many aspects of mathematics that hobo be ascertained not by using the five senses but by the mere act of intuition. Intuitively man has the ability to know the truth this is the main argument of Descartes. This is strengthened by the concept of prior knowledge. A good example is the ability of a baby to suck from the drives breast the much deficiencyed nutrients for survival. A baby is closely blind from birth and yet able to perform such actions.LockeThe pow er to use the sense of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste is one major path in gaining knowledge (Hartnack, 2001). It is in fact the ancient way of knowing the purlieu and the complexities of human interaction such as language and relationships. John Locke is one of the major proponents for this method of knowledge acquisition that man has the capability of grounds the world around him by observing and utilizing the power of the five senses to attach information. Thus, it can be argued that man can save observe the world through his senses. In this model knowledge is true when it can be measured and observed through the senses.This is also known as sensationalism. The entailment of this method can be seen in scientific applications of the use of card and careful measurements. Scientists, sociologists, and in time philosophers from all over the world use this technique and it can even be argued that most concourse use empiricism without even thinking about it. It is j ust natural for man to use his senses to understand his environment and the stimulus that he receives every waking moment.Immanuel Kant Kant is a central figure in modern philosophy because he was able to synthesize early modern rationalism and empiricism (Rholf, 2010). But this does not mean that Kant was roll in the hayly successful in reconciling Descartes and Lockes views concerning the acquisition of knowledge. Kants critics even asserted that he had made it to a greater extent change and on that pointfore do it harder to determine the amend methodology that can cooperate humans master the ability to acquire knowledge. Nevertheless, Kants major section can be summed up in two statements 1) human beings endure only appearances, not things in themselves and 2) space and time are noting another(prenominal) than the subjective forms of human sensible intuition (Rohlf, 2010). This is an important conclusion because in that location are things that empiricism and rationalis m cannot cover but can only be ascertain if there is complete understanding of everything this is knowledge gained afterward using other peoples insights and breakthroughs. For example ancient people see the sun orbiting around the earth, rationalism and empiricism will not refute that claim until there is already a capability to remediate on that knowledge and modify it because now people know more about the relocation of heavenly objects.Comparison Descartes did not bind that there can only be one method when it comes to knowledge acquisition. The use of the five senses is not enough to know the truth. There are things in this world that can only be understood by accept the existence of prior knowledge and the use of intuition. There are numeric equations that proved useful in improving mans existence but the steps in developing these mathematical equations was not derived by simply observing the world trough the fives senses. These came forth as a result of institution, sim ply because mathematical truths belong to an abstract world untracked by sense of smell, hearing, taste, touch, and sight. In the privacy of thought, a mortal can apply these mathematical equations and gain knowledge. Another helplessness of using the five senses is that it is very subjective. Kant already pointed this out by stating that the five senses cannot be real all the time. For example the refraction of light creates optical illusions. The eye communicates to the self and thinks that the spoon appears to be bent. But the spoon was only perceived to be deformed because of the effect of the action of light when it passes through water. Another subtle aspect of relying on the five senses is its unreliability when human beings are subjected to acerb conditions. For example, a hiker lost in a desert will succumb to the effects of dehydration and begins to see mirage and other images that seem to be real but are not.Even with the obvious impuissancees of the empirical meth od of acquiring knowledge, it must also be pointed out that the five senses are indispensable tools when it comes to knowledge acquisition. No matter how subjective the five senses whitethorn seem to be it must be acknowledge that human beings can live within a community because people understand to severally one others languages and respect the rules laid down by the leading or the elders. This would have been impossible without the use of the five senses.Moreover, the aforementioned weakness of the empirical method can be easily corrected using a third-party that will help verify the information. For example a mortal hallucinating in the middle of a desert can be rescued by paramedics. And the perfectly healthy rescuers can help the disorientated person to gain his or her bearing. If two people disagree with regards to the exact spinning top of the Statue of Liberty, they need not quarrel, they only need to ask an unbiased actor to measure the statue for them and settle thei r dispute. Thus, empiricism has only one valid weakness and it is the inability of man to know more than he should and therefore making conclusions without first knowing the big picture or having a complete understanding of the scientific law that governs a particular phenomenon. In this regard Kants ideas will be of great help.Conclusion Descartes view that there is indeed prior knowledge is an important first step in knowledge acquisition. The world is so complex and at the same time working like a well-oiled machine. However, it is not enough to simply say that knowledge can be gained by mere intuition. One has to agree with Locke that the five senses are indispensable tools when it comes to understanding the world. There is a need to observe and to measure in order to know the truth. But even so there are limitations so that it is important to take into affection what Kant said regarding the inability of the mind to make sense of everything. For example the movement of the eart h and sun could never be completely understood by mere intuition or observation alone. There is no perfect methodology in epistemology there is a need to use each method to know the truth.ReferencesBroughton, J. (2008). Self-Knowledge. A Companion to Descartes. MA Blackwell Publishing.Craig, E. (1998). Routledge encyclopedia of Philosophy. tender York Routledge.Cicovacki, P. (2002). Between Truth and Illusion Kant at the Crossroads of Modernity.Maryland Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Hartnack, J. (2001). Kants Theory of Knowledge Introduction to Critique of Pure Reason. IN Hacket Publishing, 2001.Rohlf, M. (2010). Immanuel Kant. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accesed 27July 2010. Avaiable from http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/TraIde