Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Philosophy Entry 1 - The Veil of Perception

English philosopher John Locke first brought this notion to the minds of scholars.  He said, "No man's knowledge can go beyond his experience," - meaning that you know only what you are exposed to.

This has been taken two ways.  First, that only what you see or smell or hear or otherwise with your senses are exposed to.  This is a rather materialistic view, but it is nonetheless a valid conclusion.

Second, that which we can piece together from the knowledge in our head.  Just as we can see lines that don't quite connect, but our brains connect those lines and make a shape anyway, so can we do this with knowledge and concepts.

No comments:

Post a Comment