Tan, Jehann Eunice S.

PHILO 11.04 – Section K

Tan, Jean Emily P.
Book 1, Chapter 1

In the beginning, Book 1 (Book A) Chapter 1 attempts to answer the question, “What is the
source of knowledge?” For human beings, knowing comes from our five senses. The sense of touch,
taste, hearing, smell, and above all the sense of sight. Seeing allows us to discover the minute differences;
through our senses, we tend to remember what our senses felt. We call this memory. Is knowledge a
result of our senes?
All animals have perception; some do not have the memory, while others do. The ones that do
have memory are likely more intelligent than the ones that do not have memory. This is because they
have the ability to learn from memory. On the other hand, there are certain animals that have no sense
of hearing yet have the ability to learn. So, does knowing come from our five senses or the memory as
a result of that five senses?
Experience arises from memory whilst knowledge/art is a result of experience. Is experience
knowledge?
People with experience seem to be more successful than people with only a rational account
without experience. The reason for this is because experience is defined as familiarity with things that
which are particular. If doctors ignore the particular within a disease and choose to treat a patient with
universal knowledge, the treatment will go astray. Is knowledge a matter of knowing particulars or
universals?
Knowing and understanding is more present in art (universal) more than is experience and we
take the possessors of art to be wiser than people with experience. For people with experience know the
what but do not know the why. Don’t we, however, think that skilled craftsmen know more than manual
labourers?
Knowledge is then having a reasoned account and knowing the causes. “Wisdom is concerned
with first causes and origins.”