Quote: "the sophist believed that human knowledge relies solely on sense perception and is therefore necessarily flawed." (pg 22, p 2)
Question: what are some pro's and con's of human knowledge relying solely on sense perception? why do you think the sophist saw this as flawed?
The Sophists believed that human knowledge relied solely on sense perception and believed it was flawed because they believe that "certainty or absolute truth is not available to humans" (pg. 22). I think that sense perception can stray from facts to opinions which makes it difficult to know if it’s the truth. The con of knowledge relying solely on sense perception would be just that: straying from facts to opinions. The pro would be that due to these different perceptions and opinions, there can be many different opposing arguments which would allow for every avenue of the subject to be explored.
ReplyDeleteJacqueline, I would like to add that along with the pros and cons you have listed, there are also many truths in your thoughts and comments about the reading that begin an interesting outlook on how the Sophists came to be. If there were another way for them to conjure up another belief, how do you think they would initially begin this thought process? I wonder if their knowledge about humans and the brain had any factor on what they learned from their own thoughts.
DeleteSince human knowledge does reply heavily on sense perception, it can be seen as inherently flawed. Since human senses and even the brain itself can be influenced, biased, and deceived it is to no wonder why the sophists realized that knowledge based only on human perception cannot be trusted. This is why in more modern times some of the only trusted forms of collecting data are machines and computers that are free of humans "flawed" senses.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Sophists believed that human knowledge rooted and was commanded by sense perception, it is only inevitable to begin a valid conclusion that this way of viewing knowledge can become too narrow. If I were to gather cons from this belief it would be that by the Sophists nurturing this particular thought made them stray away from forming other opinions on the subject matter and in return birthed a more seclusive mindset. A pro of the Sophists theory would have to be the initial birth of a knowledgable and widely agreeable concept, an argument if you will, that would soon become something more complex and understood in which molds to our generation/generations to come.
ReplyDeleteI think the human experience can be minimized to a series of perceptions, this is not inherently wrong, subjectivity is the nature of our realities. However, it can become dangerous if one is not aware of the infinite dance of perceptions passing us. This is something which leads to chaos and animosity, we see this in our current environment, so it is pretty apparent why the sophists tried to make people aware of this key concept.
ReplyDeleteA pro of human knowledge relying solely on sense perception is that most of what a human can see, touch, hear, taste, or smell is real and just as it appears. On the other hand, a con of human knowledge relying solely on sense perception is that everything a human can sense is not always real. The idea of human knowledge relying solely on sense perception is that does not take into account hallucinations, thoughts in the human mind, slight of hands tricks, just to name a few examples. The Sophists must have knew this and that is why they saw this way of thinking as flawed.
ReplyDelete