Sensing The Reality Essay Example

John Locke in his work “An essay concerning human understanding”, among other things, argues that knowledge can and is acquired via sense perception. Vehemently rejecting the notion of subjective idealism that no independent reality is possible outside of human mind, this English philosopher attempts to prove that material objects do exist, even when we are not interacting with them, and that we can obtain information about them using our sense organs. Actually, he claims that while knowledge about ourselves we form by intuition, concepts of various abstract matters we gain by logical reasoning, “Knowledge of other finite beings is to be had only by actual sensation” (624).
Firstly, we are to analyze the mechanism that connects qualities of bodies, sensations they produce in us and ideas of them that are eventually created in our heads as John Locke understands it. He believes that ideas – “immediate objects of perception, thought or understanding,” (116) are conveyed to our mind through our sense organs by the qualities of a subject – “the power to produce those ideas in us,” (117) a subject holds in itself. The author singles out three qualities of material objects. The first group are primary qualities (also called real or original) because they are inseparable from the body whichever state it’s in. These qualities are mirrored in the corresponding ideas, bearing a clear resemblance between them. They include bulk, figure, texture and motion etc. The second group is called secondary (or sensible) qualities represented mainly by colors, sounds, tastes and smells. Being not inherent in objects as such, they are rather the result of modifications of primary qualities of the bodies’ insensible particles, meaning they don’t have a prototype, so to speak, of the idea in themselves, but are the power to produce sensations in us of a certain extension, number, figure and motion of the body. In other words it is an ability of the object to provoke different sensation than it did before. And finally, the third quality is the power of any body to change any other body, so that it will influence our senses in a new way. Thus Lock makes it clear that only the first group is, indeed, formed by qualities, while the other two are, in fact, powers.
The philosopher sees the process of acquiring knowledge as follows: we are surrounded by external material objects that do not depend in the slightest on our subjective perception, attitudes or beliefs, these objects have power to influence our sense organs, which, in turn, send information about them to our mind forming ideas and, thus, knowledge. He is certain that ideas are brought to us by exterior causes arguing that they cannot be produced by the organs themselves for we, for instance, would get a taste of bread on our palate without taking a bite of it, and neither they are manufactured by our mind because, however expressive and detailed the description or idea could be, we wouldn’t know how silk feels against our skin without touching it or imagine a guitar sound not ever being exposed to it.
Next, we are invited to examine such point: pain or pleasure caused by sensation accompanies not the idea of this sensation. Lives of all people consist of a series of experiences, both positive and negative, and while we lived through them we felt sickened or exalted to different degrees, nevertheless, when recalling them we are able to detach ourselves from feelings that came with them for there is no physical sensation of either pain nor pleasure, even if we would like to relive them fully. Therefore, it is obvious that if it were mere ideas that existed, they would bring sensations every time they occurred in our mind, and, as it’s not the case, a clear distinction between ideas and sensations is seen.
And if some people are prone to doubt the signals that come from one of their senses, they should analyze information given by the others, as they will be fast to confirm the first testimony. For instance, if a person when looking at the fire concedes that it could be a figment of his/her imagination, all he/she has to do is touch it to receive evidence of it reality, for we agreed that pain and its physical mark cannot be manufactured in mind without external influence .This reasoning also defies a “bent straw” argument, as it’s based upon the false testimony of only our eyes, thus, if we feel the object with our hands, we’ll be able to get a more decisive idea about its form.
So, in spite of offering a set of arguments, Lock admits that his reasoning is not flawless and can’t be viewed as indisputable, especially compared to such of demonstration, which is embraced and assented to as soon as understood, while his method needs proof and can be subjected to doubt at any time. Nevertheless, he points out that “though mathematical demonstration depends not upon sense,”(627) it does need data from sense organs in its creation, and in understanding too for it is to be viewed with our eyes.
And, though agreeing that our sense perception being not perfect doesn’t give us absolute knowledge, it provides us with enough material to survive and even create more or less comfortable environment. Our faculties serve their purpose well, for it is what most of us need – assess advantages and disadvantages of a certain situation and play it to our benefit.