Theme 1: Plato’s “Theaetetus” and Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason”

1. In the quite complex and hard text by Kant he wants us to get an eye-opener on how we look at the universe and its components. The question itself, which is a quote from the publication by Kant has turned around the contention from the fact that “our cognition conform to the object” and instead say that the “object must conform to our cognition”. The first statement (the one that Kant meant has come to nothing) means that in order to understand an object we need to do experiments and study it. Hence, the author questions this and rather want us to see it from a different perspective in order to learn more about the time and space, namely through letting the object conform to our cognition. Basically this means that in order to understand an object it’s not enough to study it from our own eyes (since our mind is influenced by earlier experiences), but also from the object’s perspective. His example about Copernicus, who stated that the sun was the center of the universe, was an effect of this way of this reasoning. He obviously want our own mind to influence in which way we are perceiving an object and not the other way around.

2. The way i understand Socrates argue that we do not see and hear “with” the eyes and ears but “through” the eyes and ears is that first of all we have to be aware of that when we see or hear with our eyes/ears we are just collecting the information. As soon as we start thinking and using our mind we automatically perceive knowledge about the object through our eyes/ears (the thing we perceive through one of these organs cannot be perceived through the other and vice versa) and can therefore put the object in relations to other things such as values and emotions etc. based on earlier perceptions. I think we have to combine the organ, in this case the eye/ear and our soul (soul is an umbrella term which Socrates uses for an object of the senses), to fulfill seeing/hearing through something because they’re separate from each other. Socrates is also clear with the statement that every individual has his own perceptions and therefore the way we look at a single object can differ from person to person. 

I do see connections between Socrates previous argue and the philosophic term empiricism which is a theory that says that knowledge comes primarily from sensory experience. Once a human is born he is given organs and a soul that’s undeveloped since he hasn’t had any impressions that’s made an impact on his mind. But as you grow older and through experiences and education in life in several of areas you see objects from new perspectives. In order to get the most trustworthy view of an object though, it’s important to not only rely on your own experiences but also to look at the surrounding world’s empirical studies.