Epistemic and Empirical Perception and External World Design: John Locke

Abstract

For most of the history of epistemology, a central, perhaps central, issue has been the problem of the “external world.” When asked about our knowledge of the outside world, two things are usually presupposed: the first is the concept of knowledge, the second is the concept of the “external World”, no matter how vague and schematic. How do we know the existence of external objects? In other words, how do our perceptions ensure which objects we perceive and that they can exist even when we do not perceive them? The question pointed out can be answered with the perceptual representation theory of empiricism. Because empiricism relates certain pieces of information to certain situations of deception. John Locke, considered an empiricist, goes to the distinction between appearance and reality, basing the outside world on his theory of representation. Thus, he has to admit that his perception is consistent with certain exceptions. This study, on the one hand, searches for an answer to the question of how it is possible to justify belief in the existence of objects in the external world and to be accepted as knowledge from an empiricist point of view, on the other hand, it will present an analysis by applying the principles of empiricism in Locken's epistemology to the problem of the external world.