epistemologically speaking, how far can we trust our sensory experiences/sense data?

Answer 1

Our acquantaince with sense data is the basis to any knowledge as such. Under fair, normal, or even distorted conditions you should (and will) trust your senses...

Answer 2

That would depend on what position one holds initially. Obviously if you are an empiricist, you put alot of stock in sensory data. If you are a rationalist on the level of Plato, not much can be trusted. There are many objects that we can't adequately describe via the senses; such as the perfect geometric figures, that 2 + 2 = 4, all bodies have extention, or Euclid's Parallel postulate. I believe both sensory experience and rational thinking are valid ways of obtaining accurate information and together a better understanding of the world.

Answer 3

Epistemologically speaking, you can trust sensory experiences commensurate with how much experience we have with a given subject.

This is based on the assumption that what we see and understand is through the grid of our prior knoweldge and experience. Can't remember what philosopher said that just now. If you are asking for a class, maybe you've already discussed it, and if you are just interested, maybe you know or can find out.

Answer 4

Just as far as our sensory experiences go. Unfortunately that's not very far. We do have this tendency to add things to our sense experience that are not directly warranted by that experience. For example: I may say that I see a pint of beer. I do NOT see a pint of beer, I see a glass with a brown liquid in it. "Beer" is more than a glass of brown liquid. In saying it is beer I have brought in an empirical prediction about what's there -that it will taste bitter-sweet and slightly smokey (its a homebrewed traditional porter using smoked malt) etc.

In fact I do not SEE a glass of brown liquid. I see a certain pattern of colour and shade from which I infer that there is a glass with a brown coloured liquid. We do this all the time with everything. Do you hear a dog bark? No - you hear a sound which you then prediict came from a dog. I hear the sound and I can COMPLETELY trust that I heard the sound - what that sound is I did not hear and cannot trust my senses to tell me that.

Answer 5

Nature/evolution designed our senses to do a job. That job is to survive. All we know or understand is based on our combined sensorial inputs. No less is all (empirical) knowledge based on the sum total of recorded human perception/experience. Having brains complicates our (human) situation since we can log our sensorial experiences in the form of fairly complex memories and can even record these memories in writing and by way of many other mechanisms. Memories can distort the details of our (once) immediate sensorial experiences, as well as how our brain "interprets" them as they come in. Drugs and illness can have serious effects on what and how we perceive.

Generally speaking if you are a healthy, drug free person, you do (and must) trust your very life on the accuracy of your senses. EVERY person trusts their senses. If they claim they don't, they're either lying or nuts. But that doesn't mean our senses are without flaw.

Answer 6

seeing that epistemology is the technological information of understanding the answer must be, we are able to have self belief our sensory reviews one hundred%. understanding is a feeling, an emotion which at the same time as listened to publications our sensory reviews completely. searching for exterior understand-how consistently calls for the initial theory that any understand-how can come from outdoors of your self and hence you don't understand. this gadget of aquiring understand-how is determined with the aid of the no longer understanding which we call theory, for in case you knew you does no longer ought to have self belief, even if the finished thing about theory is in case you completely have self belief you understand something you'll understand and hence received't opt to have self belief. Epistemology is so alluring, that is a memory of you're

Answer 7

Well, there are two kinds of knowledge: abstract and concrete.

An abstraction is, by definition, inaccessible through our senses. Whereas we can see, hear, touch, taste and feel something that is not an abstraction.

The ability to grasp abstractions like love, and trust, for instance, is a sign of maturity. The more you can understand and talk about something that you nor anyone can perceive through their senses, the more mature you are.

So, the answer to your question is there is no definitive answer that covers every situation. Every situation is different. There are times and places we should trust our senses; when we are on a safari, or stalked by a serial killer, but in general, our senses serve only one slice of the whole pie. To determine the basic facts of our situation, for instance, they are useful, but raw data (as in fact) grasped through the first-instinct ought to be filtered through the intellect to form a comprehensive view of our situation.

Hope this was helpful. Hope you will select mine as "the best answer."

Answer 8

I forgot what philosopher said, but he posed an argument that claimed we cannot trust our past experiences to predict what future experiences will be like, and in fact, we have no good reason to. In other words, just because the sun has risen everyday for the past.. well.. everyday.. does NOT mean that it will rise tomorrow. I'm butchering the argument, unfortunately, but his reasoning is that we build our perception of what the past was like based on past perceptions, so there's some circular logic.

Short answer: our senses are all different; what smells like a bbq to one person might smell like a forest fire to another, and memory isn't any better. Over time, it deteriorates.

Answer 9

Epistemologically speaking: Unfortunately, the answer to your question is not a truth about which we can have certain knowledge.

Xan Shui,
Philosophic Philanthropist, Honest Man

Answer 10

Senses are sometimes deceptive.Intelligence should oversee senses.For example according to eyes,sun rises in the East,where as son does not rise or set.It is the earth moving/rotating etc.Depending purely on senses may put you in difficulties.