Theme 1: Theory of knowledge and theory of science-reflection

This week we have had a lecture and a seminar based on reading matters about Plato’s Theaetetus and the Preface to the second edition of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Even though that the reading matters are written long time ago, but it is still applicable on our society today. It was a bit harder to understand those reading matters from start. The reading matters is concerned with the “knowledge”, since in my opinion the knowledge is more like mathematics and physics. It is all about rules and formulas, we can calculate what we want by using it. But the”knowledge” has no definition in this philosophical way, that just like as Plato’s Theaetetus is concerned with the question “What is knowledge?” Though the dialogue never fully answers the question.

The Kant’s text was written from the viewpoints of philosopher, and many terms which I couldn’t understand (for example, metaphysical). I never have read something about the ideology of philosophy before, therefore I got really big problem with Kant’s text at the start. Then the lecture we had with Johan, he talked about some terms (naturalism, theological, mechanical etc.) which I need google it at first to understand. Then I had to read the text over and over again to prepare on the seminar. The seminar was good and helped me to understand a part of the Kant’s views. Kant draws two important distinctions, between a prior and a posteriori knowledge and between analytic and synthetic judgments. We associate a priori knowledge with analytic judgments and a posteriori knowledge with synthetic judgments. The knowledge can obtain from experience, but also the knowledge is independent of experience. Therefore the objects always necessary conform to our cognition.

Dialogue by Plato was more understandable than Kant’s text, because Socrates discussed and explained his own views with Theaetetus who was a mathematician. Therefore they used more understandable terms and meanings to explain them own views. During the seminar we discussed some interesting topics, which are about how can a blind person since who was born to perceive the color, how an infant perceives the world. I would like to say, what we perceive, it is totally based on our own bodies, experience and knowledge. The blind person has different perception with the color compare a normal person. I cannot imagine if I am blind, maybe the perception as I am familiar with which will totally to be overturned.

Even we talked and discussed a lot about readings by Kant and Plato during the lecture and seminar, it is impossible to understand all things for me. But it gives me a new enlightenment about what is knowledge.