How Have Western Views of Knowledge Changed over Time? Essay

through and throughout history, cultures have held disparate expectations on the nature of cognition. Epistemology, the branch of school of musical theme that focuses on introductory questions such as What is acquaintance? How do we know what we know? , lies at the heart of these piles. In Hesperian culture, the answers to these basic questions have changed markedly over magazine. Throughout history, this evolution in philosophy has been inextricably linked to comprehension and religion. Much of Western thought has been to a great extent influenced by the philosophy of the old-fashi cardinald Greeks. In particular, the epistemological views of the Ancient Greeks dominated Western thought for centuries.Of altogether the Greek philosophers, Plato was one of the roughly influential. In his most famous work The Republic, Plato apply the Allegory of the Cave to describe the purpose of stunning perception in familiarity encyclopedism. In his analogy, Plato described a co untermine in which people were chained spate in such a air that pr sluiceted them from looking anywhere but forward. hind end them was a fire and in former of them was a wall that reflected shadows from that fire. The prisoners captors manipulated these shadows to create forms and stories. The forms and stories that the prisoners maxim were the only creation that they knew.Eventually the prisoners left the cave and demonstrate true reality outside. It was only because that the prisoners understood that what they had perceived until this moment was a false perception. The Allegory of the Cave served to illustrate Platos epistemological views. Today, we describe Platos philosophical views as logicalist. He argued against credence on centripetal experience because he believed that it failed to provide us with any warrantee that what we experience was, in fact, true. He believed that the tuition we get by relying on sensory experience is constantly changing and oftentimes unreli fitted.It can be evaluated only by appealing to higher principles that do non change. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato was comparing our sensory perception to the shadows on the wall of the cave. Plato saw us as the chained prisoners futile to know anything but this false reality. precisely by leaving the cave and ascension to higher orders of thought are we able to know true reality. Implicit in this view was the belief that true knowledge cannot be found through data-based investigation. According to Plato, empiric knowledge was merely opinion. Only thought and abstract conclude could produce true knowledge.The sageist view of epistemology dominated much of Western thought for centuries. Eventually, progress in science during the conversion changed this. One of the first to change these supreme allele views was Andreas Vesalius. In 1543, Vesalius published De gayis Corporis Fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body), an elaborately illustrated atlas of gay anatomy. art object Vesalius published work had significant historic importance in the field of medicine, his most enduring legacy was his revolutionary repugn of the health check conventions of his day.For centuries, physicians had relied on reading texts from Galen for medical knowledge rather than participating in the commit dissection of human corpses. Vesalius promoted the practice of dissection and hands on experience. By overthrowing the Galenic tradition and relying on his own ceremonial occasions, Vesalius was advocating an empirical understanding of the human body. This shift from rationalism to empiricism became one of the defining characteristics of the scientific Revolution. In direct contrast to rationalism, empiricism emphasized the acquisition of knowledge through direct observation and experiment.Empiricism not only boost but required reliance on our senses. This was in direct opposition to Platos epistemological view that had dominated for a millennium. This shift from Platos rationalism to scientific empiricism had significant ramifications for philosophy. While onwards this time on that point had always been quislingism betwixt science and philosophy and religion, there had been no real distinction between them. Now, empirical knowledge served as a way of testing philosophical knowledge. This would at long last lead to their incompatibility and their eventual separation.This separation is largely attributed to Galileo, one of the major figures during the Scientific Revolution. Even in his time, Galileo was a celebrity scientist and a philosopher. While he relied heavily on empirical methods in his studies of physics and astronomy, he also depended on rational thinking in his use of mathematics. It was through his combined use of empirical observations and rational thought that he confirmed the of import view that the sun was the center of the universe. However, the of import heliocentric worldview deviationed with the domin ant geocentric view espoused by philosophers from the time of Aristotle.Making guinea pigs even more complicated was the fact that philosophers couched this gainsay as a apparitional matter arguing that a heliocentric worldview went against the teachings of the Bible. As the geocentric view had been adopted by the church, the heliocentric worldview was branded as heresy. Galileo, certain of the physical truth of his heliocentric mental image and at the same time good in his religious beliefs, worked to reconcile this conflict by divorcing the church from purely physical matters, where faith is not involved. By running(a) to separate science, philosophy, and religion, Galileo was attempting to reestablish the compatibility of science and religion. scorn Galileos attempts, the conflict between scientific and religious worldviews is still evident today. The epistemological tradition of today has created a dominant worldview based on evidence. As during the time of Galileo, thi s worldview has at times conflicted with widely held religious beliefs. This divide, empiricism vs. faith, has become an increasingly crowing conflict in American politics.A recent announcement by GOP presidential candidate, Rick Perry highlights this divide. Rick Perry recently publically declared his disbelief in the speculation of evolution in favor of smart as a whip design. The theory of evolution is an explanation of the derivation of life widely supported crossways numerous scientific disciplines. Though science and empiricism overwhelming supports the theory of evolution, it does not largely accepted by the populace. The polemical nature of evolution has emerged because, once again, a purely physical matter has been politicized as a religious matter.Rick Perrys views on evolution illustrate a larger phenomenon in U. S. politics. That is, views regarding the evolution/ heavy design conflict tend to be governmentally divided. Intelligent design or faith based arguments are for the most part forwarded by conservative Republicans such as Rick Perry. Evidence based empirical arguments, such as evolution, are championed by liberal Democrats. Science has become political as conservatives are aligned with religion.