Philosophers have long reflected on our ideas of perception and reality. Common sense beliefs about perception include that we directly perceive objects and that we perceive objects as they truly are. John Locke, an English philosopher of the 17th century, challenged both of these beliefs. In this paper, I will explain Locke’s reasoning against these beliefs by illustrating his arguments for the primary quality/secondary quality distinction, as well as the difference between primary and secondary qualities and between the quality and the idea of the quality. I will also raise an objection for one of these arguments, as presented in lecture.
While the other theories are focused one of identity or the other, but never both together. In support of dualism, Cornman and Searle state, “Whatever is mental depends essentially on consciousness or awareness, but what is material does not. Furthermore it certainly seems that nothing mental has size, shape, mass, or spatial location; such qualities seem only to characterize the material” (Cornman and Searle 240). The authors, aware of the two identities, are using these examples to establish a precedent as well as to help the two identities stand out. Furthermore, the authors begin to speak about how the identities have been connected since the beginning when God created the world.
Perception is the organisation, identification and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment. Like perception, logic plays a role in critical thinking. Critical thinking is the process in which one mentally explores deeper than the superficial matters at hand into the deeper layers in order to find out what the real issues are. However, when it comes to weighing their beneficial impact on the critical thinking process, logic and perception are by no means equal. While logic is firmly rooted in reason, perceptions are just as firmly rooted in one’s senses and can easily be corrupted.
It shapes the view of a person and gives a deeper insight about the world. Science and math are a priori. The research’s conducted on these from before, help shape the future. P3 is correct because empiricists see the mind as an absorber of information, Kant disagrees and says that the mind shapes experiences into objects that an individual knows a priori. Empiricism believes that it is not possible to observe directly based off little to no observations.
According to him, through the phenomena of the skepticism, any truth can be verified by the theory of it. In the border spectrum, he believes that mind is the first reality of the human being, where all the perceptions and ideas occur. According to his viewpoint, the mind is the soul and truth are
To this I answer, in one word, from experience.” According to this quote, Locke explains that people are born with empty minds, but individual learning and experiences will help to shape life. Experience comes from two different sources: outer experience and inner experience. Outer experience comes from the senses and provide sensory details like color, shapes, heat, and sweetness. Since these qualities exist in material objects, every human perception is the same and produce the same impact in each human. Inner experience comes through self reflexion and provides ideas such as beliefs, ideas, and thoughts.
Before proceeding Locke’s position it is necessary to define two terms which will be used throughout this paper: “idea” and “quality.” “Idea” will refer to the perception the mind has of an object or body through the senses. “Quality” will refer to an attribute which is characteristic of a substance. Furthermore, qualities exist in the external world and ideas exist in the mind. Even though Locke gives different definitions of “idea” and “quality” he often uses the words interchangeably. Keywords: Primary quality, Secondary quality, Perception, Interchangeability, Epistemology,
Rene Descartes Mediations, discusses a wide variety of topics such as the concept of God, Dualism, Deception through the senses and many more. In the Second Meditations, Descartes mentions the idea of sense perception and how we use it to understand the information we gain from our experiences. The passage selected will illustrate the idea behind sense perception and the mental processes we use to better understand it. In the passage mentioned above in the Second Meditation, Descartes concludes that sense perception is the root of thinking and other mental processes, such as understanding and doubting. The information we gain from experiencing the world around us originates from our senses.
As for Locke, he emphasizes that "external objects furnish the mind with the ideas of sensible qualities, which are all those different perceptions they produce in us; and the mind furnishes the understanding with ideas of its own operations" (102). What Locke states is similar to the idea of Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave" because our perception of the experiences we encounter is going to be different for everyone else. Today, both Carr and Locke's views of the mind can be interpreted as the advocacy for freedom. Throughout the past few years, many have expressed their opinions on freedom and how people have the choice to be or do whatever their heart desires and what their mindsets for them. Carr's view of the mind can be interpreted as the use of technology and how it benefits society.
Moreover, he claims that he has mental images about the external world and explains how he gets those images when he doesn’t have a body or senses. He is a thinking thing, which has an ability to form mental images, and gain wisdom about the outer world through senses. But since, he assumes that he is in a dream all of his senses are falsified so, he just thinks that he sense those things and concludes that sensing is just thinking. He later continue with the physical objects and their reality, he takes a wax as an example because taking a general concept