Trusting of Senses

Senses are a primary thing we use to navigate through everyday life. Tastes, smells, and colours are used to determine our surroundings every minute of every day.  Having knowledge that these senses can be trusted is a controversial subject. In “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”, John Locke explains what he believes sensations, reflections, and ideas are. He talks about the importance of “primary qualities” and “secondary qualities” (pg 101). Primary qualities are qualities possessed that give motion and physical extension, while secondary qualities are sensations that an observer feels (PowerPoint 5 Locke, 6). Senses are different for every person and can’t be proven. Locke has an accurate way of describing why one cannot simply trust their senses without experience as a reliable source of knowledge.

Senses are acquired at a young age. We are taught what tastes sour, what tastes sweet, what is white and what is black. These perceptions are based on beliefs made from the beginning of time that we trust to perceive life everyday. Locke was an empiricist, someone who believed that minds are blank slates only shaped from experience (PowerPoint 5 Locke, 2).  If you look at senses from an empiricist standpoint, you can clearly see why senses should not be trusted.  To fully trust your senses, you are required to experience that sense in action first hand to be able to determine that is reliable.