Wile E Coyote is a cartoon character that creates many inventions to enable him to kill the Road Runner. Are the inventions seen in this Character new idea? That is a question that can be applied to us as human beings. Human beings have been existing for a period of 200, 000 years and human civilization has taken 6,000 of the total years. It is clear though that before humans inhabited this planet, there were other species (Descartes, 1979). Other animals which have now become extinct were inhabitants of the earth before us. Humans learn from their ancestors and the environments they find themselves in. To boost our chances of survival, we come up with inventions from our diverse experiences. Wile Coyote’s discoveries are not new ideas, and I will argue that human beings cannot create new ideas without influence by their skills.
Rationalism can be defined as the belief that some ideas are inborn and Justified a priori which merely means that they are undeniable truths and no empirical evidence is required. As human beings, we rely on our reasoning and rational faculty. Descartes firmly believes that there is a type of knowledge that can be classified as justified a priori. Descartes argues that human beings cannot rely on their senses because they can be misinformed especially dreams, hallucinations or illusions (Descartes, 1979). Descartes goes on to show that human, on the other hand, should not be comfortable with skepticism either and they should be careful not to fall into it. Skepticism is the ideology of doubting everything about the world we live inhibit. In his efforts to fight this ideology he comes up with a method of doubt that which we can use to fiddle our knowledge to come to a place where we can trust it. In his famous Wax Argument,
Descartes gives a priori of beliefs that reveal that the method is the best source of knowledge. Descartes argues using the illustration of a solid piece of wax, honey scent, and cold, and it makes noise when knocked. Then the wax is brought close to fire it gradually melts to a liquid in this state it is hot, smells less, and makes no sound. In case we would just use our senses a lone to understand the wax, therefore we would get contrary information concerning wax, and we would never get to a point where we can comprehend the true composition of the wax(Descartes, Haldane, " Ross, 1951). At one time the wax is cold and reliable only for the form to change into hot and liquid when it is subjected to a different environment. Our senses recorded the two picture about wax but it is our minds that process and put sense into the information obtained, as Descartes would argue, “inspection on the part of the mind alone” (Descartes, 1979). The way we become aware that it is the identical wax involved in the experiment is by putting to use prior knowledge, our reasoning, and our rational faculty. So there is knowledge which can be classified as inborn and originates from our minds alone. If we did not have our thoughts to process the data, we would only know that the wax moved from stable then to liquid, but we would not be able to establish that it is the same wax(Descartes, Haldane, " Ross, 1951). As a rational being, Descartes would argue that it is possible for humans to create new ideas because of the innate knowledge that they possess. We do not have to witness two plus two happening for us to believe the answer is four. Descartes argued that was similar to new ideas; we do not have to witness something to be able to think of new discoveries. We apply our prior knowledge, insinuation, induction and analysis but also we can come up with new ideas since they are born in our minds alone without the senses.
The reverse of rationalism is Empiricism. Empiricism affirms that all understanding originated from the sanity as well vindicated empirically. On the same note, Hume is an empiricist and claims that every acuity of the psyche takes place in two categories: ideas as well as impressions. In his work, “ The Origin of Ideas” he claims that what we collect by our senses of hearing, seeing, feeling, touching and even desiring are more vivid perceptions and are derived from impressions which impress deliberately on the information that we obtain (Hume, 2011). Thus, this means that we get impressions towards something first before coming up with ideas. It is by reflections on these impressions that we come up with ideas. Hume argues that ideas are derivatives of impressions. Using his misplaced shade of blue case together with his puzzle argument he explains to demonstrate his point. If a person does not see a particular shade of blue before he or she cannot form an idea concerning that specific shade of blue and it would be entirely something that the mind cannot conceive. We are not capable of creating opinions with our thoughts without involving our senses (Hume, 2011). Using such methodology, Hume argues that human beings cannot generate new ideas since we rely on our senses to interpret the world, so it is impossible to create new ideas minus our senses.
Humans cannot create new ideas using our minds without the senses. As Hume argues, all ideas are derived from impressions. We perceive the world surrounding us through our senses. The knowledge we obtain is then stored in our minds. Accordingly, using fish as an example, a human being has to see them swimming underwater to realize the possibility of making a device that can move under the water. A person has to see the scene first before they can come up with an idea of building a machine that can do a similar thing. This explains why submarines mostly resemble marine creatures such as whales (Hume, 2011). In the Same way, an individual cannot make something a main concern without seeing or experiencing it. If for example, you would never see someone burn you would not know that fire is dangerous, we learn immensely from our environment and other creatures to enhance our survival. You would not know if it is true that one plus one adds up to two if you have no prior knowledge of math. This validates Hume’s claim that ideas are reproduction of impressions. Wile. E Coyote is incapable of creating new inventions the same way that a human being cannot come up with entirely new ideas.
In conclusion, our ideas and knowledge originate from our senses and the experience we have in our world. If we had no experiences how would we demonstrate that knowledge is real? Many scientific theories have to be proved through many experiments and demonstrations. All the inventions we have today are as a result of ideas that we derive from experience or other prior inventions. No new idea can be formed. There are still new impressions that may be lying in wait till they are discovered but once they are found, they will have their source in impressions too. So your idea remains a derivative of your opinions.
References
Descartes, R., Haldane, E. S., " Ross, G. R. T. (1951). Meditations on first philosophy (pp. pp- 53). New York: Macmillan.
Descartes, R (1979). “Meditations on First Philosophy: In which the existence of God and the distinction of the soul from the body are demonstrated.” Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company
Hume, David (1777.) "Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding: The Origins of Ideas Section II," in The Project Gutenberg EBook. Section Numbers 12-16.
