Philosophy: Does Knowledge Come From Experience or Reason?

Imagine that you are listening to a friend that is presently going through a heart break and she’s asking you for some advice. You have been through the whole heartbreak situation before, thus making you a better person to ask because of your experience towards this subject. I believe in the empiricist theory, therefore making me believe that knowledge originates from experience. I believe that knowledge derives from experience because without an eventful and marking past, we make naive decisions where we are most likely to make a mistake without the wisdom of this error.

C.S Lewis said “Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn; my G-D do you learn.” In school, we are taught to deal with mathematic equations, we learn guidelines to literary texts, and we memorize what kind of chemical substances react well with others. I believe that that is fact and scientific proof. But when will we have a moral situation that would demand of us to solve these kinds of problems? Experience can be defined by the mistakes that we have to go through to be wiser for the next situation. Without an eventful past, we make naive decisions that lead us to mistakes. I believe that experience is what we name our mistakes, and wisdom is what comes from it. For example, imagine that you are in a position where you have a huge test coming up. You procrastinate, study the night before the exam and receive a horrible grade. The next time, you will remember this mistake, take it in account and study days before your next exam. I also believe that experience is not necessarily important in mathematical or scientific fields, but in our self knowledge. I think that we understand ourselves better when we have gone through things, when we have gotten to know ourselves as well as when we have completed ourselves. I believe that our experience is a part of who we are, it is something that influences our development as human beings.

Ironically, I think that the more trouble and pain someone has been through, the more beauty and knowledge comes out of it. Have you ever noticed that while you are engaged in a conversation with someone, the conversation is much more entertaining and interesting if the person has been through difficult positions? I believe that experience makes a person more complete.

I appreciate experience and believe that it is an essential part of knowledge and wisdom. It opens our minds to make a better decision for a situation where we once made mistakes, it is closely related to wisdom and it opens doors to better advice as well as more interesting conversations. Experience is an essential part of knowledge. This knowledge does not necessarily have to do with mathematical or scientific knowledge, but more with self knowledge and completion.