m.s wk4 disc

Please pick one of the following questions to answer for the Discussion this week:

• What exactly is Empiricism? Please provide specific examples to support your answer.
• Do you believe Locke’s primary and secondary qualities adequately explain reality as it was understood in the late 1600s? Can you think of something that exists that has no primary or secondary qualities or both?
• Why do Empiricists believe there are limits to the knowledge of reality?

Discussion Guidelines

• Three (3) posts minimum.
• The initial forum response is due by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. EST and should be a substantive response to the Discussion prompt.
• For peer replies, respond to at least two (2) classmates by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. EST and give meaningful replies that advance the Discussion.

Before you post, please thoroughly edit your writing to ensure it is professional and academic. For more details about how the initial post and peer replies are graded, see and the linked .

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Week 4: Joseph’s Response

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Florencia Joseph posted Jan 29, 2026 11:05 PM

Evening class,

Question 3:

From my interpretation empiricists believe there are limits to the knowledge of reality because they think we can only know things through experience. According to the classroom readings, it explains that all knowledge begins with experience, meaning we learn by using our senses, like seeing, hearing, and touching.

But since our experiences can only show us so much, empiricists believe we cannot know everything about reality. Immanuel Kant also said that the human mind shapes how we experience the world. For example, we always see events in time and space and understand things through cause and effect.

So, empiricists think there are limits to knowledge because we can only understand reality based on what we experience, and our minds affect how we see the world.

Joseph, F

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Owen Printup Wk 4

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Owen Printup posted Jan 29, 2026 10:57 PM

Empiricists that all knowledge and existence is derived from our senses. Though, in scenarios like a magician tricking an entire crowd of people, or smaller things such as someone hearing their name from across a grocery store, our senses have proven to be unreliable. Therefore there are limits to our knowledge of reality put upon us to said unreliability and it can even be said that we cannot be 100% sure about anything. Along with that, if all knowledge comes from experience, one cannot know anything for certain because one cant observe all experience in a lifetime.

An interesting occurrence that happens to medical students is a phenomenon called the Dunning kruger effect. In short, the effect states that the more you know, the less you think you know. This applies because people who are subject matter experts tend to have less confidence in their total knowledge because they know how vast and intricate their specific subject goes.

Another limitation on empirical knowledge are ideas that cannot be determined based on observation alone. For example, the topic of God comes up in the rational / empirical debate. By the very nature of the Abrahamic interpretation of God, they cannot be observed by the senses of man, therefore it is knowledge that cannot be accessed in the empirical sense. Instead of claiming absolute knowledge, empiricists attempt to use what knowledge we are able to gain and make inferences to the real world and are able to apply that to their daily lives, rather than strive for raw, sanctioned truths.