Two Other Philosophers, John Locke, And George Berkeley

Two other philosophers, John Locke, and George Berkeley have shown similar theories to the discussion from the ideas presented by Plato. Unlike Plato who argues that we cannot determine what is true or real based on experience, Locke argues that all knowledge which we use to determine what is true or real comes from experience. And similar to Plato, Berkeley argues that only our ideas are the only thing that is real. Locke also argues in his essay that knowledge is not something people are born with. Locke differs from Plato, because Plato believes we do not know the true or ideal state of something. This is so because on Earth the physical realm, we only experience â€Å"shadows†, or reflections of the perfect ideal objects we have in our†¦show more content†¦Locke’s second point in his argument is that knowledge comes from the senses and how we perceive the world. This means that all the knowledge society has acquired comes from the observations and reasonin g people have made based on their perceptions. In his essay, Locke presents the idea of two fountains of knowledge. These fountains of knowledge is where all the ideas that we can have have come from. The first fountain of knowledge is sensation, which involves all the five senses of the human body. It is because of sensation we have ideas such as hot, the color orange, sweet, and bright. The second fountain of knowledge is experience, which helps explain the things we perceive from the first sense, such as reasoning, thinking, and knowing. Locke then separates experience into two categories, primary and secondary qualities. Primary qualities are qualities that an object can have without us needing to sense it such as size of an object or the way it is moving. An object will already have these qualities regardless if a person recognizes them or not. Secondary qualities are the â€Å"other† qualities such as color, or the sound an object makes when it hits the floor. These o ur qualities that exist in our mind, not qualities that an object has already on its own. A great example is wine. When it comes to wine many people have different experiences on how a wine tastes. Imagine one bottle of wine that is sampled by two differentShow MoreRelatedLocke’s Qualities vs. Berkeley’s Idealism754 Words   |  4 Pagesfall of Rome and the rise of the dark years, three major events had occurred. The first began with the scientific revolution, where many philosophers were becoming scientist, such as the philosopher of science Francis Bacon. The next event was the resurgence of skepticism, where one questions everything until they discover the truth. 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