Q&A: Philosophy and the Senses
Philosophy and the Senses.
Question
Hi Michi,
Is there anything we can know about existence and its grounding not through the senses?
Are ideas, will, and a priori principles among those kinds of things?
Answer
Absolutely. All the a priori insights that underlie our knowledge do not come from the senses (that is the definition of a priori). For example, the knowledge that the senses do in fact reflect the world does not come from the senses. The principle of causality is not learned from the senses. The same goes for the existence of God, the existence of an electron, the law of gravity (the general law, not a specific phenomenon that we observed), and much more. The same is true of values.
Discussion on Answer
We do have such an intuition. Of course, one can cast doubt on it.
What happens the moment I cast doubt on it?
I’ll take the famous example of the sun and ask:
How do we know the sun will rise tomorrow?
I believe the sun will rise tomorrow because of the knowledge we have today and from my past experience and that of others.
Is there a problem here?
Nothing happens. If you cast doubt, then you have a doubt. But the very fact that this is an intuition does not obligate casting doubt on it.
Got it. Yesterday I asked you about the parable of the stones, and I understood from your answer that its purpose is that of a revealing argument.
The question that came up after that is: how do we know the senses really aren’t an illusion?
The question is whether we have a way to know that (from empirical findings),
or whether it’s simply a “healthy” intuition.
Sorry for going on and on haha
Each person has his own way of knowing that. A revealing argument only shows you that this is what you think.
In my view, the way to know it is through intuition. There is also the argument that appears in my article on Occam’s Razor.
Thank you very much,
One more question: the problem of induction asks where the justification comes from for generalizing from a single case or a few particular cases, right?
And in effect it undermines our experience / the senses as things we can rely on.
As a rational person, do I need to agree with this intuition of generalization?
And is it only as a skeptic that I should have a problem?
I know it’s a bit unrelated, but I’d still be happy if you answered.