Is knowledge rooted in experience?
Is knowledge rooted in experience?
Is knowledge rooted in experience? Here, we are mentioning a philosophical question which had many arguments from the past until now. In my opinion, knowledge is rooted in experience. I believe that knowledge derives from experience because without experience there is nothing to know.
First of all, in my opinion, experience is the quality of possessing understanding and awareness about the result of interaction of different things, facts, and processes. For example, when I was a child, I touched the fire which was burning, my finger was burned, so from that fact it gave me experience and I knew that if I touch the fire, I will be burned. Therefore, from that experience which gave me knowledge of fire’s danger I will be aware to avoid fire. Here, I want to come to the idea “Tabula rasa” (the blank slate) of John Locke.[1] When we are born, our knowledge is a blank slate and through time, it will be fulfilled by experience what we experience from life, school, books, mistakes, facts. So our knowledge is what we have experienced and observed. Moreover, according to John Locke “The evidence in support of senses as the source of human knowledge is experiential”.[2] The data which senses perceive will be reflected by sense experience to give us knowledge about things.
Next, some people can question that if knowledge is rooted in experience, we have to face with some questions. First, experience can be right or wrong, so we will not have certain knowledge if we have no right experience. In the strict sense, knowledge is justified, true belief,[3] so how can we believe in experience? I want to take an example, when I was a child, I was taught to drive my bike on the right side, and I thought that everyone in the world has to follow that rule. But when I was a student, I learned that there are some countries where they drive bikes on the left side such as Australia, Bangladesh, and England. Perhaps my knowing before was wrong, but I think that I still had knowledge from my experience, just not a full understanding. We know that experience is repetitive, changeable and completive to be suite with thing and fact, so these aspects of experience make our knowledge more accurate and adequate.
Second, if knowledge rooted in experience, it will be subjective and personal. Yes, I think that experience is a subjective, personal act. For example, I see a cat, feel its weight. I have objective knowledge of the existence and properties of the cat. I perceive and experience the properties of the cat in my own senses, my own experience. However, the idea of cat is the same in the mind of everyone, though perhaps properties of the cat are different (color, weight,..) and we can have different knowledge of the cat’s properties, but the knowledge of the cat is not totally different. Here, I want to say that knowledge is what we have in our own experience, it can be subjective and personal but it is also universal in knowing.
Third, if knowledge is rooted in experience, how about the knowledge which we have not gained yet? Can we say without experiences the knowledge will not exist? I think that, this point of view somehow can be accurate. For example, I never see how a unicorn is, so I have no experience about it. Perhaps, I can imagine a unicorn, but that is not real knowledge. Or another example, if I have no experience about death, I will not know how the life after death is. I will go to the heaven or to the hell. I will see God or not. Therefore, since I have no experience, I will not have knowledge or I can say that without experiences the knowledge will not exist.
To conclude, I believe that “all human knowledge begins with and is ultimately based on experience”.[4] Experience gives us knowledge, so I think that if we have many different experiences and live with various experiences, our knowledge can be improved.
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