SENSE ORGAN AND REASON

WRITTEN BY ; ABDULMUTOLIB OTTAN

Can senses  alone  furnish  us  with  knowledge? It  must  be noted  that  the  senses  alone  without  the  co-operation  of  reason  cannot  furnish  us  with knowledge.  Until  reason  interprets  them  and  gives  them  meaning,  they  are  simply  raw data  without  meaning.  For  example,  the  direct  object  of  the  sense  of  sight  is  simply colour,  when  we  look,  we  can  only  see  colour.  That  is  all  the  sense  of  sight  can furnish  us  with.  It  is  reason,  which  tells  us  that  what  we  are  seeing  is  a  tree,  a  table,  a blackboard,  an  animal,  a  human  being  etc.  Again,  the  direct  object  of  the  sense  of hearing  is  sound.  The  ears  do  not  tell  us  where  the  sound  comes  from.  We  hear  the sound  of  an  aeroplane  passing,  the  sound  of  gunshot,  or  that  of  a  thunder.  It  is  our reason  that  tells  us,  for  example,  that  the  sound  we  are  hearing  is  that  of  thunder  not that  of  aeroplane  or  gunshot.  Our  ears  only  register  the  sound  without  telling  us  the meaning  of  the  sound.

 The  same  applies  to  all  other  senses.  When  I  perceive  an  odour, for  example,  it  is  my  reason  that  interprets  the  odour  I  am  perceiving  and  tells  me  that it  is  the  odour  of  a  decaying  animal  or  cosmetics.  When  a  blind  man  touches something,  the  sense  of  touch  does  not  tell  him  what  he  is  touching.  It  is  reason  that interprets  his  experience  and  tells  him  what  he  is  touching.  All  these  imply  that  the senses  alone  without  reason  cannot  furnish  us  with  knowledge.