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  • Essay / Definition of Sense Knowledge by John Locke

    John Locke, a philosopher who published a book titled “An Essay on Human Understanding” in this book, Locke talks about sense knowledge. What is sensitive knowledge? Locke's definition of sensible knowledge is “Knowledge is the perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas” (IV, I, 2). Knowledge is the agreement or disagreement of two ideas of which you are aware. The “ideas” Locke mentions in this definition are things that you immediately perceived, things that you immediately became aware of. For example, a person sees a chair in front of him, he perceives the chair directly and the things you perceive are your ideas (the chair). In this article I will show how Locke successfully defends himself. In this book, Locke talked about knowledge, Locke emphasizes that there are three degrees of knowledge: intuitive, demonstrative and sensible. Intuitive knowledge is things you see as they are, there is no intervention. For example, the sun, the sun shines so brightly in front of you that you have no doubt or even doubt that it was not the sun. Demonstrative knowledge is the opposite of intuitive knowledge, demonstrative knowledge has interventions or the connection of one idea to another Locke also mentions that demonstrative knowledge can also be called reasoning. Finally, this article focuses on sense knowledge which Locke defines as a perception of the agreement or disagreement of two ideas. The “ideas” that Locke mentions in these definitions are the object you perceive, the object or thing you see in front of you. Sense knowledge according to Locke's definition is that external things exist because of sense ideas. Thus, the proof that external objects exist is due to our senses (e.g. smell, taste, touch... etc.). Locke mentions that there is a limit to sense knowledge, this limit is that a person can only confirm whether an object exists if it is within their field of vision. Considering that sense ideas are produced by an external object, Locke mentions that sense ideas oppose our will. For example, pain, if you are hit you feel pain and you have no control or choice to not feel pain. Descartes is another philosopher like Locke, he also talked about proving the existence of external objects. Unlike Locke, Descartes believes that pure intellect is the best evidence, while Locke believes that sensible knowledge is the best evidence. I agree with Locke because even though Descartes objects to Locke's theory and says that Locke relies too much on sensory ideas, Descartes' theory also relies quite a bit on sensory ideas.