When I started working with this theme, the first text I read was Kant, and I can honestly say I didn’t understand a word of the text. Then it was Theaetetus, and even though it was slightly better than Kant, it was still quite confusing. I started off not understanding the texts at all, and not understanding why reading Kant and Plato would be relevant to me or this program. But after doing some research, listening to the lecture, and working with the text, it started making more sense. I slowly started grasping what Kant and Plato were talking about, started understanding why the question of knowledge would be relevant to me, and also started seeing a bigger picture.
Discussing these questions for ourselves during the seminar, it was clear everyone had a much better understanding of Plato and Kant than after just reading the texts. We could actually discuss both the text, but it into context, and question it.
Is there such a thing as independent knowledge? Can we know about things-in-themselves, or is it all formed by our experiences? And if there are knowledge about things-in-themselves, is it worth knowing? During the seminar we discussed this, what if we can know about things-in-themselves, what would be the point? If you cannot put it into context, you cannot compare it, and you cannot associate it with anything, what would be the value of that knowledge?
Let’s say we discover something new, something we’ve never seen before and have no knowledge of. We automatically start guessing what it could be, based on previous experience of other things, based on our faculties of knowledge. Is it similar to anything? Does it have the same qualities as anything? And from that we start exploring and researching to find out what it actually is. If we didn’t have our faculties of knowledge, and it would just be raw sense data, would that be the value? And how would be gain more knowledge of it?
Our faculties of knowledge are a key aspect when it comes to how we see the world and what we know of the world, but do our faculties of knowledge need to be updated? The world isn’t the same as in Kant or Plato’s time, and with all the technological advances and changes in society, are the faculties of knowledge still the same? And what happens when your faculties of knowledge breaks down? If you for example have a mental illness, and your organization of the world breaks down. Today we have a lot more knowledge about mental illnesses and a lot more diagnose, how does the faculties of knowledge apply then?
Working with these texts have been very interesting and I find myself reflecting on things I never thought about before. Putting these ideas into a modern society and reflecting on what for example social media and advertising does to us and our society, how we today cope with all the information we’re constantly exposed to, and what our communities look like in such a globalized and digitalized world.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSounds like we have had a quite similar thinking-process regarding this theme. From initial thoughts like "What are they trying to say with these texts and why am I reading them?" To thoughts like "This is quite interesting and I can actually see the point in studying this". I like that you opened up to the discussion regarding how these ideas fit in a modern society. It would have been interesting to hear some more of your thoughts regarding that, because I really think these ideas can be applied onto today’s media landscape for example.
ReplyDeleteHej !
ReplyDeleteThis is a true reflection about knowledge, based on how you experienced it through the first weeks. Would you say that your knowledge of these course has evolved or still needs to evolve? Do you know what you don't know about this lecture?
My point is, we are perfectionist and must therefore always look for what we don't know yet, especially the things we don't know that we don't know.
You asked yourself a lot of questions about the matter, I do hope you have been able to answer them. As Michaela mentionned, I would have also loved to hear about your thoughts on the application of those information upon the actual world governed by technology and such ! :)
I think it is interesting that you mention how the faculties of knowledge might need to be updated. How is that done? During our seminar we also discussed about updating the twelve categories. I think it would have been interesting to learn more during this theme about how these categories are applied to real world concepts.
ReplyDeleteI have experience a situation that forced me to update my faculty of knowledge. It was when my perception did not correspond to my conception during a sleep paralysis. It is a transitional state between being awake and sleeping where your mind is present, but you cannot move my body and often experiences hallucinations. It was a very strange feeling, where I perceived things I could not conceptualize.
To engage in a new field of research and shift focus from science to philosophy is challenging, but it is a sign of human health that you still set out to do so! Because just like both Kant and Plato suggested, we humans will always strive to understand our surroundings.
ReplyDeleteYour discussion on whether our faculties of knowledge should be updated was interesting to read, and I started to wonder what these updated faculties could be. I started thinking about Artificial Intelligence and robots, and my initial approach was that they would exemplify "modern" ways of attaining knowledge. But aren't they, in a way, also following Kant's already defined faculties of knowledge? The robots clearly depend on quality, quantity, modality and relations when making sense of their surroundings, even if they are run by computers. I.e., could it be that Kant's (and Plato's) faculties are sufficient, even if the world in which they were created looked very different from our modern world?
On another note, I really enjoyed JaPaHe's question. We obviously cannot know the things we don't know, and it is evident to me that we must strive to erase as many of the unknowns in our lives to minimize the danger of "the unknown unknowns".