Is learning on our own the best way
to gain knowledge?
Chapter 9 is a analysis called “The Rationalist, Rene’ Descartes.” In
section 9-2 titled "Rene’ Descartes: The
Solitary Intellect" you will read that Rene' Descartes was a very wise man, who studied
many different areas such as mathematics, history, liberal arts, philosophy, as
well as dancing, and fencing. When Descartes was 23 years old he had a
revelation that transformed him and the Western Philosophy. He describes three
dreams he had, one of which had a clap of thunder. He took that specific dream
as a sign from “the Spirit of Truth descending to take possession” of him.
After that experience, Descartes believed that he had been divinely encouraged
to form a method of reasoning, using mathematical principles. In Chapter 9,
section 9-4 titled “The Method Of Doubt”
Descartes said “I thought that the
sciences found in the books and those at least whose reasoning’s are only
probable and which have no demonstrations, composed as they are of the
gradually accumulated opinions of many different individuals- do not approach
so near to the truth as the simple reasoning’s which a man of common sense can
quite naturally carry out respecting the things which come immediately before
him.” He said if you followed carefully enough, than it would guarantee
absolute certain truths from the results. Now that we have some background on
how Descartes came to be the one who introduced this revolution, I think it
would be appropriate to say that he was a driven, very intelligent individual
who when he set his mind to know something, discovering the answer with reason
would be accomplished.
In my life I have not always been
the type to go above and beyond to find out information on my own. I would take
advice from others, listen to what people believed for themselves and go along
with their reasonings. Now that I am older and have had the opportunity to go
through life decisions, I have found that facts, reasoning, and true understanding
of what you’re facing is the best way to gain knowledge. Learning to make decisions
on my own after I have taken the time to evaluate the positive and negative
outcomes I have proven to myself that I have found truth about what really
makes someone smarter, and have a deeper knowledge of life and that is through
reasoning. Going into situations with an opened mind and discovering your own
opinion on matters is the best way to gain knowledge. Weather it be about
wanting to know if God exists, if true love is attainable, or if college is
difficult. Why are finding things out on our own beneficial? Because everyone
will tell you what he or she has heard or gone through but no matter what, the
only way to know for certain and have confidence in your decision is if you
take the plunge and find out yourself with actually facts and reason. That is
exactly what Rene’ Descartes did. He felt that science was mistaken and instead
of asking what others thought, he challenged himself in ways unimaginable
mentally and physically to prove what was true with reasoning to follow. I
agree with the brilliant Rene’ Descartes and will continue to gain knowledge to
any question I have with a clear mind and reason.
Word count- 562
DIBS
ReplyDeletePeer Comments by: Philosophyexplorer
ReplyDeleteTotal number of words in the post: 558 by my count
Spelling errors: “Chapter 9 is a analysis called” This should be an instead of a. I would take advice from others, listen to what people believed for themselves and go along with their reasonings.” This should be reasoning not reasonings. “Weather it be”. This should be whether, not weather.
Grammatical errors: “Now that we have some background on how Descartes came to be the one who introduced this revolution, I think it would be appropriate to say that he was a driven, very intelligent individual who when he set his mind to know something, discovering the answer with reason would be accomplished.” There really should be a comma between the highlighted words. Even with that this sentence just doesn’t make sense. “Why are finding things out on our own beneficial?” This should read “Why is. . .”. “and find out yourself with actually facts and reason”. This word shoud be the word actual. “ Going into situations with an opened mind”. This should read with an open mind.
Lack of clarity: The clarity of this post was questionable. There are points in the writing that leave me scratching my head and wondering what the author meant. An example of this would be here “He describes three dreams he had, one of which had a clap of thunder. He took that specific dream as a sign from “the Spirit of Truth descending to take possession” of him. After that experience, Descartes believed that he had been divinely encouraged to form a method of reasoning, using mathematical principles.” I do not know how the author derived anything in regard to mathematical principles from their description of the dream nor do I know how mathematics relates to the rest of the blog post. Another reason I struggled with the clarity of this blog post is due to some of the errors. While I can get the general idea of what the author is trying to say, it is hard to know if I am truly interpreting it correctly.
ReplyDeleteOrganization of ideas: I feel as though the organization was fine. The author had a decent flow by providing a situation, background, opinion and then reasoning behind their opinion.
Did the author answer their question? The question was “Is learning on our own the best way to gain knowledge?” I feel as though the author did answer the question with this statement “Because everyone will tell you what he or she has heard or gone through but no matter what, the only way to know for certain and have confidence in your decision is if you take the plunge and find out yourself with actually facts and reason.”
ReplyDeleteDid the author provide a concrete example that clearly illustrates their main point? I do not feel that the author provided a concrete example. The author did give scenarios in how they have generally come to accept the rationalist’s theory such as “about wanting to know if God exists, if true love is attainable, or if college is difficult”, however, there is no one concrete example of when the author put this theory into play.
How does the author’s concrete example illustrate or not illustrate their main point? Once again, the author did not provide a concrete example to illustrate their main point.
Do you agree or disagree with the author’s answer and why? I agree with the author that the best way to gain knowledge about anything is to experience it first hand, but I do not agree that it is the only way. It is impossible and sometimes dangerous to experience everything that one may need to have knowledge about, especially when we have access to knowledge from reputable sources in today’s world.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a concrete example that clearly illustrates why you agree or disagree with the author? For example, I do need to gain my own knowledge in terms of dating someone and should not take other people’s word that they are a good guy and just marry him. However, it would be unwise of me to not heed the advice and warning of those more knowledgeable than me in botany to not touch poison ivy.
What is your explanation of how your concrete example clearly illustrates your reason for why you agree or disagree with the author?
While there are some situations one must experience on their own to truly understand how it will affect them, not all situations need to be experienced firsthand. Generally, I would say that situations that vary based on a person to person case (such as dating) should be experienced firsthand but situations that produce the same result regardless of the person experiencing them (such as touching poison ivy) are situations in which we can be satisfied with the public knowledge available from a reputable source.
State whether you agree or disagree with the peer responders assessment of your answer to your question? I agree with the peer responders assessment of my answers to an extent. I am confused because the responder agrees with my specific question and answer which is "Is learning on our own the best way to gain knowledge?" however than they state they disagree because they believe it is not the only way to gain knowledge even thought that statement was never said by me. I agree that a clear example was not mentioned by me in the blog post instead I gave examples of things that you would need to experience yourself to gain knowledge. I think over all I I agree with the responder because I as well think that learning on our own is the best way to gain knowledge even though it is not the only way.
ReplyDeleteVery nice peer-review Polarbearz123! You completed everything that you are asked to in the instructions in a critical and thoughtful way.
ReplyDeleteIs learning on our own the best way to gain knowledge?
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 is a analysis called “The Rationalist, Rene[’]←(This is not the same as a accent. You might be able to enter an accent if you press down on the key for the letter you want accented. A menu for you to select accented letters from might pop-up when you do so. This is at least the case if you use an Mac. I can’t say for PCs, unfortunately.) Descartes.” In section 9-2 titled "Rene’ Descartes: The Solitary Intellect" you will read that Rene' Descartes was a very wise man, who studied many different areas such as mathematics, history, liberal arts, philosophy, as well as dancing, and fencing. When Descartes was 23 years old he had a revelation that transformed him and the Western Philosophy. He describes three dreams he had, one of which had a clap of thunder. He took that specific dream as a sign from “the Spirit of Truth descending to take possession” of him. After that experience, Descartes believed that he had been divinely encouraged to form a method of reasoning, using mathematical principles. ←(The transition from what is before this point and what is after is a bit disjointed. Perhaps start another paragraph here)→In Chapter 9, section 9-4 titled “The Method Of Doubt” Descartes said, [“I thought that the sciences found in the books and those at least whose reasoning’s are only probable and which have no demonstrations, composed as they are of the gradually accumulated opinions of many different individuals- do not approach so near to the truth as the simple reasoning’s which a man of common sense can quite naturally carry out respecting the things which come immediately before him.”]←(What is the purpose of this quote? What did you want it to do for you in this passage. You should only use quoted material when providing textual support or when emphasizing a particular way that an author stated something. In other cases, you should paraphrase and provide a source citation. You should never let the quote do the explaining or use a quote as if it were your own words, even if you provide citation information.) He said if you followed carefully enough, than it would guarantee absolute certain truths from the results. Now that we have some background on how Descartes came to be the one who introduced [this revolution]←(What revolution are your referring to? This is the first mention of a revolution.), I think it would be appropriate to say that he was a driven, very intelligent individual who when he set his mind to know something, discovering the answer with reason would be accomplished. ←(I think you meant to use Descartes as an example of someone who took it upon himself to learn things on is own. This was a great idea, but you never explicitly stated that this is what you were doing. Try to be more explicit with what you are doing when you write. This helps with clarity and might ward off potential misunderstandings or misinterpretations.)
In my life I have not always been the type to go above and beyond to find out information on my own. I would take advice from others, listen to what people believed for themselves and go along with their reasonings. Now that I am older and have had the opportunity to go through life decisions, I have found that facts, reasoning, and true understanding of what you’re facing is the best way to gain knowledge. [Learning to make decisions on my own after I have taken the time to evaluate the positive and negative outcomes I have proven to myself that I have found truth about what really makes someone smarter, and have a deeper knowledge of life and that is through reasoning.]←(This sentence is unclear. Especially towards the end. One way to fix problems with clarity when it comes to complicated sentences it to simply cut them into short sentences.) [Going into situations with an opened mind and discovering your own opinion on matters is the best way to gain knowledge.]←(It would be good if you gave a specific, detailed, concrete example to illustrate why this is the case.) [Weather it be about wanting to know if God exists, if true love is attainable, or if college is difficult.]←(This is an incomplete sentence.)(You should also start a new paragraph here. Each paragraph should focus around one central point. The content of each paragraph should all focus on saying something about that central point, e.g., provide more details, provide reasons, give an example that illustrates the point, etc. So whenever you start to write about a different point, you should start a new paragraph.)→Why are finding things out on our own beneficial? Because everyone will tell you what he or she has heard or gone through but no matter what, (add ‘but’) the only way to know for certain and have confidence in your decision is if you take the plunge and find out yourself with actually facts and reasons. [That is exactly what Rene’ Descartes did. He felt that science was mistaken and instead of asking what others thought, he challenged himself in ways unimaginable mentally and physically to prove what was true with reasoning to follow. I agree with the brilliant Rene’ Descartes and will continue to gain knowledge to any question I have with a clear mind and reason.]←(It would have been good if you gave a more detailed account of how Descartes went about finding things out for himself. For example, you could have given a bit more detail about any one of his arguments for any one of his conclusions in the Meditations.)
ReplyDelete