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Essay on Aristotle and Descartes
In order to discuss what the senses contribute to knowledge one must first identify the senses used and their contribution to the human learning process. The human senses sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste are all commonplace in our everyday life, one must therefore not forget their initial importance in general prior to considering their contribution toward human learning and knowledge. In assessing the importance of these senses one can make the 17th century argument of Empiricism versus Rationalism, in other words one can draw on the thoughts and theories of Locke in opposition to the beliefs of Descartes. The argument between Empiricism and Rationalism can be broken down to the simple form of Locke’s Imperialism being that all knowledge derives from the senses, against Descartes belief that information can be known in advance of experience through innate ideas. Locke defined knowledge as "the perception of the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of any of our ideas". The ideas are therefore derived from our sensors that act as receptors to a given stimulus.
Senses are crucial to acquisition of knowledge. ‘Nothing is in the intellect which was not previously in the senses.’ The senses receive the forms of several individuals (composed of form and matter), and the intellect then abstracts what is common to them and makes them what they are—the substantial form. Non-sensible things, such as God, can be known only through their relation to things which can be sensed, e.g. as the cause of the sensible world.
For Aristotle, as a philosopher, he is, in more ways than just a few, far different from any of those who preceded his existence. He was, however, one of the first professors in the world to document his writings and by doing so, he left us with a systematic view of the world in which he lived
Russell, Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.................
