About Human Knowledge Based on Two Reference Sources (Essay Sample)

Name
Professor’s name
Institution
Course
Date of submission
Human knowledge
Human knowledge in its basic simplest form can be defined as an individual ability to understand facts, concepts, skills and certain relevant information. This skill of understanding can be attained through education or experience in a certain field for a long period of time. A knowledge issue is a significant topic of concern that philosophers have been researching on overtime to try and understand where human knowledge begins and what constitutes it. Over time there has been a continuous argument on the existence of different types of knowledge especially in the context of philosophy. Knowledge is perceived in different point views, some people view knowledge as a skill that human beings are born with and that advances as they grow up each and every day. On the other hand, others believe that knowledge is a skill that humans normally acquire after birth. This essay will provide a detailed analysis of different views of human knowledge, justification of each perspective which includes its strength and weaknesses as it tries to explain the foundation of human knowledge.
Normally, knowledge understanding is based on two scenarios, one which requires some kind of experience to understand facts and concepts and the one which doesn’t require any kind of experience, it basically requires inborn knowledge to understand concepts and information. Locke, (1) argues that human beings are born with some levels of knowledge which usually differentiates us from other animals. He explains that the important thing is to investigate the actual initial origin of human knowledge so as to determine if indeed knowledge requires some form of experience or whether it is inborn from the beginning. Skills of knowledge that human beings acquire through their life growing process enable them to reason on issues such as being able to know that a triangle contains three sides, such skills are achieved through education which therefore means that knowledge is not really inborn but acquired as a skill through experience.
Descartes, (2) describes the phenomena of dreams and the existence of the external world. He outlines how it's impossible to differentiate between being awake and being asleep. Descartes finds it quite difficult to distinguish between being awake and dreaming as he outlines that all the facts that the Supreme Being has made him believe may be untrue in the sense that he thinks the powerful, malicious and cunning demon may in one way or the other has deceived him up to a point where everything that is real in this universe seems to be just a mere dream to him. It is quite clear that according to Descartes explanation of his beliefs and deception by an evil creature, he is unable to confidently prove that he is not dreaming. Based on his thoughts, everything that is in existence in this world is just a part of his dream and not the reality. The evil deceiver has contaminated his thoughts on how he thinks about the existence of an external world. According to Descartes, (2) all components that consist of an external world such as the air, sky, colors, and sounds are just illusions which can only be described as dreams since they are being used by his deceiver in order to compromise his judgment.
Descartes, (1-3) is aiming at arriving at a conclusion which summarizes the foundation of human knowledge. He explains that this knowledge can be acquired in two different ways, firstly, knowledge gained through senses and secondly knowledge acquired through reasonable judgment. He explains that knowledge gained through senses which are basically knowledge acquired through observing actual facts and learning experience is usually doubtful and cannot be relied upon whereas knowledge acquired as a result of reasoning is certain and ...