Theme 1: Theory of knowledge and theory of science

1. In the preface to the second edition of "Critique of Pure Reason" (page B xvi) Kant says: "Thus far it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to objects. On that presupposition, however, all our attempts to establish something about them a priori, by means of concepts through which our cognition would be expanded, have come to nothing. Let us, therefore, try to find out by experiment whether we shall not make better progress in the problems of metaphysics if we assume that objects must conform to our cognition." How are we to understand this?

 In my opinion what I understand is, the new cognition always comes from the old cognition. When we are trying to explain a new phenomenon, we are going to use our old cognition to explain it what it can be. We maybe cannot make good progress in the explanation of the new phenomenon, then we have to change a new angle to see that new phenomenon. This would be just like the first thoughts of Copernicus. The definition about new phenomenon is already existed around us, we just need find out it by through different paths (different angles, different depth and breadth of knowledge).

 2. At the end of the discussion of the definition "Knowledge is perception", Socrates argues that we do not see and hear "with" the eyes and the ears, but "through" the eyes and the ears. How are we to understand this? And in what way is it correct to say that Soctrates argument is directed towards what we in modern terms call "empiricism"?

Eyes and ears are just tools for us to see things and listen what other people say. But everything we see is a perspective not the truth and everything we hear is an opinion not a fact. Each person has his own perspective and opinion. Socrates mentioned about the cold:” Now is the wind, regarded not in relation to us but absolutely. Cold or not; or are we to say, with Protagoras, that the wind is cold to him who is cold, and not to him who is not?” In his standpoint we can understand, we see same thing and listen same discussion, but they will be totally different among different people. By using through our eyes and ears to acquire knowledge then we use our mind to perceive that. Empiricism is a theory which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience (Wikipedia). Sensory experience is a source of knowledge acquired by means of observation or experimentation. Since we cannot perceive knowledge by just our own seeing and hearing, because everything has different angles and human perceives it differently. Also eyes and ears just organs which cannot perceive things. We are using our mind to perceive things. Therefore human need a lot of observations or experimentations to obtain knowledge (from seeing different things and hearing from different people) “through” the eyes and ears. At the end we will understand what we really see and what we really hear.