I'm a very slow reader so I didn't read all of Plato's, but I read the first third about if perception really is knowledge and then I actually read a summary of the rest. It worked well and the summary I used was quite long and detailed so it didn't loose much of the context. I didn't understand much from Kant's language though so I just read as far as to the posed question and a few more pages. Then I had to read them over and over again to understand what he was even talking about. Then I discussed my raised questions among friends and tried to simplify the words to understand the meaning of the sentences. But it was really hard!
The lecture we had with Johan was also confusing. It started out well with some basic subjects like naturalism vs. scientism and technological vs. mechanical worldviews, but once we got into Kant's question of how is it possible to know something about the world a priori, then I got lost again... The seminar on the other hand was good! During the seminar we discussed that Kant was trying to give us the forms of understanding so that we can gain knowledge about the world. Kant said that knowledge about the structure of the world is really knowledge about the world. It's not only knowledge about our representation of the world, but it is the world. And we need to look at the world as a structure of meaning. The world isn't just a thing that is totally independent of us.
Then we continued on to "we don't see with our senses but through our senses". And we had a good example of this during the seminar: On one hand you can hear, but on another you can listen. I think that was a really good explanation! Then the quote "perception without conception is blind" was brought up and I think you should look at it as if to put the senses in a concept and give it meaning. that is how we see through our senses.
I hereby have to sentences that I'm going to remember from this week:
Learn to think in terms of meaning(forms) instead of fact
&
Look at the world as a structure of meaning
Hey!
SvaraRaderaI totally agree with you. This theme was hard to grasp but somehow Plato's text was easier than Kant's. It was easier to follow the conversation Socrates had with Theaitetos than to understand Kant's text.For me, it was to abstract. I think the lecture with Johan made some clearity to the texts, but then during the seminars, I got confused agan! So I totally understand your confusion and I liked reading your reflection! Great job :)
//Hannah
Heya!
SvaraRaderaI agree that the first weeks theme and texts were a bit abstract and hard to grasp, however the seminar was really helpful in my opinion! I think the important part to understand with Kant is that it is us, humans, that give meaning to the world through our forms of intuition and categories of understanding. Without us, humans, the world as we look at it would have no structure which is important to remember when we are discussing what knowledge really is.