Personal Application #3

Rationalists and empiricists discussed in the past few chapters have gotten me thinking. I don’t think I can personally call myself one or the other exclusively. I don’t believe that we can figure out everything with reason, I believe there has to be some interplay of reason and senses to help us understand our experiences. I do agree with the fact that, if we held no knowledge and were only exposed to the world full of intense sensory experiences, we wouldn’t be able to learn anything about our world, scientifically. We would learn the way it felt to stand in the pouring rain, but never know why it rains. The same thing is true for if we were brought into the world with nothing but our scientific knowledge based on evidence. That leaves no room for emotions or processing of sensory events, something that can be just as important in forming ideas.

            I think there is somewhere to find a happy medium of trusting reason and senses. Of course, common sense is one of the most valuable things a person possesses. It tells us the basic things not to do, and it is, to me, a part of the reasoning abilities we have. Though we have common sense, there are some things we can’t learn through common sense or other reasonable conclusions and concepts we are born understanding, if there are any of those. Sometimes, as they say, you have to put your hand on the hot stove to realize it burns. Though that should probably be seen as something of common sense, people still have to use their senses to experience some things and learn to do (or not do) something.