The Dean of Studies – Fr. Eustace – My worthy guide – Br. Anastasio – Honorable Board of Examiners – distinguished audience – and my fellow students – a very good afternoon to you all! I welcome you all to this short exposition of my paper entitled: “The Critical Appraisal of Empirical Knowledge in John Locke’s Philosophy,” as my partial contribution to the field of Epistemology.
John Locke, a 17th century first English Philosopher of the Scientific Revolution, was highly an influential founder of the British Empiricism. He was born of a royal family in England in 1632 and died in 1704. His father was a lawyer, captain in the army, and a Parliamentarian in the civil war. Locke’s mother was pious and affectionate. However, she died and left her young sons without mother’s care. In such a chaotic experience, Locke writes: “I had no sooner perceived myself in the world, but I found myself in a storm which had lasted almost hitherto.”
Locke’s Epistemology is seen as a response to a general cultural crisis, the breaking of textual tradition, bitterness and bloodshed of militaristic religious factions in Europe. During his 15 years of scholarship at Oxford, Locke showed his love for facts than abstractions.
Locke’s principle works are: Two Treatises on Government, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding – his masterpiece, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, The Reasonableness of Christianity, and the First Letter on Toleration. Locke felt that rationalists were biting more than they could chew i.e. they held that the power of reason could do more than was actually the case. However, let us not think that Locke necessarily pretends to solve purely speculative problems of knowledge. He rather aims at encouraging useful intellectual training in the daily life of man’s experience, but in concrete terms.
As regards to the choice of my paper, I venture into the above topic because of the relevance of the man’s empirical thought, which is a response to our everyday confrontation of the Why? What? How etc. questions about life and knowledge in particular. My target as I take up this research is to know. We often say that we know things because we can see, touch, smell or hear them. Does this imply that as long as we do not have such an experience of the senses, the existence of unperceived things is an illusion? I thus investigate on reality not only from an empirical stance, but also from an assessed critical perspective of knowledge.
It is said that the search for knowledge is as old as man himself. Knowledge is a moving power in man, who knows that he knows; knows that he does not know, and even yearns to know more of what is. The Socratic quotation: ‘There is only one good – knowledge, and one evil – ignorance,’ stimulates me further, to dig into the faculties of knowledge so as to have the right knowledge. I do not think empirical knowledge has all answers to reality.
Content: “No man’s knowledge goes beyond his experience.” This phrase is very Lockean. We cannot imagine having no experience at all. Man’s existence itself is necessarily an experience. For example, my knowledge that I am now at my desk holding a paper is perceptually gained through my sight on the audience before me, and my touch of the paper as I read and speak out in defense of it. Locke lays out a theory of ideas, proves them empirically and rejects innate ideas. In any case, Locke would confirm that the mind is empty at childbirth, and it is just ready to swallow any ideas from several channels of man’s senses. However, psychologists affirm that experience is not only from birth, but right from the moment of conception.
My work therefore has 4 chapters. In the first chapter, we deal with the general understanding of knowledge. Knowledge is so dynamic that our minds cannot grasp it completely. We are often left in wonder of such a complexity! However, it is not enough that we wonder. I schemed into man’s structure of knowing and how he knows that he knows what he knows. Since knowledge aims at truth, I have made a link between knowledge and truth. I have tackled the postmodern perspective on knowledge in brief.
Chapter two treats the life and times of John Locke, his works especially his ‘Essay’ which I closely made reference to. Other concerns include the circumstances surrounding Locke, his central project, influence from his predecessors, and finally the influence of his thoughts on a contemporary situation. We bear in mind that the context of Locke helps us to understand his empiricism.
I have treated John Locke’s concept of empirical knowledge, as the heart of Locke’s philosophy in the third chapter. This chapter covers areas of human understanding in the Lockean view; highlights some kinds of experiences of man plus the foundations and divisions of the Lockean ideas; empiricism and the tabula rasa concept of Locke; why a rejection of innate ideas. Besides questioning the certainty of empirical knowledge, I have treated Locke’s empirical knowledge as viewed in concepts on morality, abstraction, substance, knowledge of existence etc. In his empiricism, Locke says that the mind perceives nothing except its own internal states. At this point, he seems to develop an idealistic tendency. Yet by wiping out the distinction between sense images and concepts, he landed into sensationalism and materialism. Locke confirms that anything that is outside these empirical ideas is outside our knowledge. Since substance stands outside, it is indefinable – that which I know not!
Chapter four is a critique of Locke’s empirical knowledge. It entails the lights and limitations of his theory of knowledge, extent of human knowledge, relevance of his knowledge to philosophy. We have attempted to question as to whether Africans can find a place in the notion of Locke’s empiricism! I observed that when you say to an African, ‘here is something for you,’ he hears you and normally responds by extending his hand and uttering with his mouth, ‘may I see, smell or touch it?’ This shows the interconnectivity of the senses of an African man.
However, Locke’s empiricism is like a drop of water in the ocean of knowledge. It is not enough that we become satisfied with what appears for it may not be what it is essentially. Locke’s empiricism lacks depth and speculative boldness. Imagine! Intellectual knowledge seems to be reduced to sensation! But we must serve ourselves with empiricism as a starter, lest we fall in a total skepticism. It would be absurd for instance, to give up our legs to walk, for the fact that we have no wings to fly. It would equally be unreasonable to give up our scarce knowledge, because of not being able to reach full knowledge! Reflecting about myself, a question comes to mind, ‘after all, if we just exist, what is the difference between us and the empirical objects out there?’ A conscious openness to situations, plus a combination of the sources of knowledge should bring us closer to the knowledge of truth, which ends in God.
Conclusively, I have treasured the empirical contributions of Locke in a world of philosophy. Even in glorifying his empiricism, Locke would remark that all the sublime thoughts, which tower above the clouds, take their rise and footing here on the empirical ground. We should acknowledge the role of the senses in our lives, for they are a stimulant to man’s action and being. My conviction is that Locke’s philosophy facilitates us to reflect more of the vast knowledge as a means to penetrate into the world of the unknown. It is still my dream that this work of transcending empirical knowledge stimulates readers to journey together towards discovering and assimilating the means of a true quest for knowledge oriented towards a holistic formation of man in his search for truth and happiness – the end of life.
Wanjala Moses.
27th May, 2006,
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