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Single Idea 5729
[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 4. Pro-Empiricism
]
Full Idea
The structure of your reasoning must be rickety and defective, if the senses on which it rests are themselves deceptive.
Gist of Idea
If the senses are deceptive, reason, which rests on them, is even worse
Source
Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], IV.518)
Book Ref
Lucretius: 'On the Nature of the Universe', ed/tr. Latham,Ronald [Penguin 1951], p.146
A Reaction
This strikes me as one of the most basic tenets of empiricism. It denies the existence of 'pure' reason, and instead asserts that it is built out of complex and abstracted sense experience, which makes it ultimately a second-class citizen.
The
20 ideas
with the same theme
[reasons for favouring the empirical view of knowledge]:
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1500
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When we sleep, reason closes down as the senses do
[Heraclitus, by Sext.Empiricus]
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543
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All men long to understand, as shown by their delight in the senses
[Aristotle]
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1822
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Reason can't judge senses, as it is based on them
[Epicurus, by Diog. Laertius]
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5702
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The senses are much the best way to distinguish true from false
[Lucretius]
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5729
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If the senses are deceptive, reason, which rests on them, is even worse
[Lucretius]
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16637
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The absolute boundaries of our thought are the ideas we get from senses and the mind
[Locke]
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3938
|
Geometry is originally perceived by senses, and so is not purely intellectual
[Berkeley]
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2183
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We can only invent a golden mountain by combining experiences
[Hume]
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2186
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We cannot form the idea of something we haven't experienced
[Hume]
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2194
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How could Adam predict he would drown in water or burn in fire?
[Hume]
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2702
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Only madmen dispute the authority of experience
[Hume]
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2205
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You couldn't reason at all if you lacked experience
[Hume]
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2217
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When definitions are pushed to the limit, only experience can make them precise
[Hume]
|
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21285
|
Events are baffling before experience, and obvious after experience
[Hume]
|
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6577
|
For Kant, our conceptual scheme is disastrous when it reaches beyond experience
[Kant, by Fogelin]
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16925
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Appearance gives truth, as long as it is only used within experience
[Kant]
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12108
|
All real knowledge rests on observed facts
[Comte]
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9082
|
Clear concepts result from good observation, extensive experience, and accurate memory
[Mill]
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5185
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It is further sense-experience which informs us of the mistakes that arise out of sense-experience
[Ayer]
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21685
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Empiricism says evidence rests on the senses, but that insight is derived from science
[Quine]
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