Quote 1: "We are all instruments endowed with feeling and
memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects
and that also frequently strike themselves." Denis Diderot
Quote 2: "Where the senses fail us, reason must step in" Galileo Galilei
what do the quotes suggest about the role sense perception plays in our acquisition of knowledge?
The 1st quote was proposed by a man named Denis Diderot. He was a french philosopher, art critic and writer. He was around during the age of enlightenment and during the age of enlightenment this was the time when "Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change." This was the time for new ideas or any ideas at all to be brought out and be open for discussion. Question everything would be a summary of the age of enlightenment. This is where our senses and perception would be questioned and this contemplation probably lead Denis Diderot with this quote. He claims that we are instruments equipped with feeling (sense) and memory (past perception) being struck by surrounding objects such as the world around us and that these instruments frequently play themselves. The instruments frequently playing themselves in the quote imply how our own intuition or gut feeling/instincts play a role with how we perceive and sense things. And the way we sense and perceive knowledge easily affects how we see the world itself in an outline.
Sometimes the world shows us knowledge and sometimes we show knowledge to the world.
In quote 2 "where the senses fail us, reason must step in" means simply to not always trust our sense perception and to find an answer/reason. This quote is extremely significant because it is coming from a man named Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian scholar and scientist whom made a huge impact on our ways of knowing in this world and about knowledge itself back then around the 16th century with science. Back then, due to the influences of religion and the church everyone believed that the earth was the center of the universe and planets and stars orbited around the earth. They believed that the earth was in the center of everything that it stayed still where it was, and it was not easy to agree with this. physiologically, we as humans make assumptions of our environment and we do not like to be wrong or to be confused at all. Seeing the perception of the sun, moon and the other planets around us we sense that everything around us is moving and we are staying still be we ourselves do not feel motion of this world, however Galileo proved this theory that the earth was the center of the universe wrong and that the sun was actually in the center and we were orbiting around it. He found it discovering the Phases of Venus and he showed the world that our senses and our perceptions have been proven wrong. That is why in the quote he indicates that "reason must step in" because if our ways of knowing about the world (ex. the world being the center) are actually not what they seem and feel to be, then how could we as humans tell from right or wrong?
Sources:
The 1st quote was proposed by a man named Denis Diderot. He was a french philosopher, art critic and writer. He was around during the age of enlightenment and during the age of enlightenment this was the time when "Enlightenment thinkers in Britain, in France and throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change." This was the time for new ideas or any ideas at all to be brought out and be open for discussion. Question everything would be a summary of the age of enlightenment. This is where our senses and perception would be questioned and this contemplation probably lead Denis Diderot with this quote. He claims that we are instruments equipped with feeling (sense) and memory (past perception) being struck by surrounding objects such as the world around us and that these instruments frequently play themselves. The instruments frequently playing themselves in the quote imply how our own intuition or gut feeling/instincts play a role with how we perceive and sense things. And the way we sense and perceive knowledge easily affects how we see the world itself in an outline.
Sometimes the world shows us knowledge and sometimes we show knowledge to the world.
In quote 2 "where the senses fail us, reason must step in" means simply to not always trust our sense perception and to find an answer/reason. This quote is extremely significant because it is coming from a man named Galileo Galilei. He was an Italian scholar and scientist whom made a huge impact on our ways of knowing in this world and about knowledge itself back then around the 16th century with science. Back then, due to the influences of religion and the church everyone believed that the earth was the center of the universe and planets and stars orbited around the earth. They believed that the earth was in the center of everything that it stayed still where it was, and it was not easy to agree with this. physiologically, we as humans make assumptions of our environment and we do not like to be wrong or to be confused at all. Seeing the perception of the sun, moon and the other planets around us we sense that everything around us is moving and we are staying still be we ourselves do not feel motion of this world, however Galileo proved this theory that the earth was the center of the universe wrong and that the sun was actually in the center and we were orbiting around it. He found it discovering the Phases of Venus and he showed the world that our senses and our perceptions have been proven wrong. That is why in the quote he indicates that "reason must step in" because if our ways of knowing about the world (ex. the world being the center) are actually not what they seem and feel to be, then how could we as humans tell from right or wrong?
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment