What knowledge is pure thought able to supply independently of sense perception? Is there any such knowledge?

Question

If not, what precisely is the relation between our knowledge and the raw material furnished by sense impressions?

Answer 1

The knowledge you have of the world creates the objects you are experiencing. The actual existence or non-existence of something "out there" in the world is not something you can determine or experience for yourself, except through the help of your knowledge. And this knowledge is not yours; it is something which you and your ancestors have accumulated over a long time. What you call the "act of knowing" is nothing other than this accumulated memory. You have personally added to and modified that knowledge, but essentially it doesn't belong to you at all.
There is nothing there inside you but the totality of this knowledge you have accumulated.

Answer 2

"What knowledge is pure thought able to supply independently of sense perception? Is there any such knowledge? "

No, you would be like a baby in the womb forever. Imagine being born with no senses. Even a worm has senses. The difference is that we RETAIN sensations.

"If not, what precisely is the relation between our knowledge and the raw material furnished by sense impressions?"

Your brain brings order to sensory chaos by integrating what you sense into percepts. Then, you integrate percepts into concepts.

That's the highest level explanation.

Answer 3

Knowledge cannot be formed without thought, pure or otherwise. Knowledge is formed from the digestion, for lack of a better word, of data (ie: the raw material furnished by our senses/emotions). I agree with St. Thomas who stated that nothing is in the intellect which was not first in the senses.

Unless the knowledge you speak of that's free from thought is Zen enlightenment which cannot be achieved through learning or meditation; it is simply realized. Therefore it's not really knowledge so much as... innate wisdom(?).

Beautiful question. Good luck on finding the best answer for yourself.

Answer 4

good question! enable us to first understand what sensations and perceptions and how does the innovations substitute the former into the latter. by utilising itself a sensation is basically the notice of a stimulus. we've a style on the tongue, an scent interior the nostrils, a sound interior the ears, a temperature on the exterior, a flash of sunshine on the retina, a tension on the palms. that's the uncooked crude commencing up of journey. that's what the toddler has interior the early days of its groping psychological life, that's not yet awareness. although, permit those countless sensations team themselves approximately an merchandise in area and time - say the apple. permit the scent interior the nostrils, and the style on the tongue, the gentle on the retina, the form-revealing tension on the palms and the hand, unite and team themselves approximately this ingredient: ......and there is now an awareness not an excellent sort of a stimulus as of a particular merchandise; there is perception. Sensation therfore has surpassed into awareness. wish this solutions your question in a roundabout way. thank you for aksing. Have an impressive day!

Answer 5

What is "pure thought?" Thought is an intellectual activity, & I'd assume would require references, sources. Sense perception. What would one think, if there was nothing to think OF? Threre are altered states of consciousness in which one connects with the pulse of the universes & oblivious to Newtonian things. But this is not thought. I don't believe it's even knowledge, except perhaps in a "spiritual" concept. I wonder if that's what you mean?

Answer 6

I was basically prepared to say that thought & sensory perception are inseperable, with a brief explanation of why I believe this. But I broke my golden rule & looked at the answers first. Wow. I don't think you'll get an equal, or more comprehensive answer than that of DeanPonders--also, I was impressed with amthonypaullloy d. I don't think I could add anything more worthwhile.

Answer 7

Kant tried to answer this very question in the Critique of Pure Reason. He, roughly, came up with:

Whilst we cannot reason beyond or sensual experience that experience is shaped by our reason. There are statements that are known a priori (before looking at the world) because there are statements about the way in which we impose order on our sensual experience.

EG Time and space. I can directly perceive neither time nor space. I do not see space in the way I see a cup or a table. Space is the way in which the cup and the table are arranged in my sensual experience. If something is not presented to me in either space or time then I cannot perceive it : it follows that both space and time are valid for all statements I can make. I cannot go beyond experience in talking about things (the "thing in itself"), I can only talk about things as they appear to me: that will always be in space and time.

I also have certain concepts and catagories of thought. The way we must think to create thoughts to work with. Our sensual perceptions, before our intellect works on them, form a unified indistinguished whole: our intellect needs to chop this up into little bits to work with it. Just as everything we perceive is in time and space every thought we have is (for example) quantified in terms of "all", "some" or "one". Again like space and time if we elucidate all these necessary modes of thought we can outline the necessary shape of all our thoughts. Outlining the necessary shape of all our thoughts outlines the necessary shape of all our experiences and thus shows the shape of the world.

The "shape of the world" is in terms of our sensual experience. Kant is a bit iffy on whether their exists a world beyond our possible experience. He is not, howver, iffy on the idea that if it is not possible to experience it then you cannot use reason to work on it - leaping forward to Peirce we could say that on a pragmatic basis it does not exist.

Finally: if you try and go beyond the limits of reason's power you end up in big trouble.

(And if you think the above is a bit garbled you should try reading the real thing! "Clear" "concise" are NOT words to describe Kant's writing!)

Answer 8

that feeling you get inside, when you do something good for another person and you know it's right. It touches the knowledge of life's experience.

Answer 9

Read Descartes. I think therefore I am. It as possible to establish our own existence in absence of physical sensation.

Answer 10

spiritual knowledge is pure knowledge
Mind knowledge is sense knowledge

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