In order to discuss what the senses contribute to knowledge one must first identify the senses used and their contribution to the human learning process. The human senses sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste are all commonplace in our everyday life, one must therefore not forget their initial importance in general prior to considering their contribution toward human learning and knowledge. In assessing the importance of these senses one can make the 17th century argument of Empiricism versus Rationalism, in other words one can draw on the thoughts and theories of Locke in opposition to the beliefs of Descartes. The argument between Empiricism and Rationalism can be broken down to the simple form of Locke's Imperialism being that all knowledge derives from the senses, against Descartes' belief that information can be known in advance of experience through innate ideas.

Locke defined knowledge as "the perception of the connection and agreement, or disagreement and repugnancy, of any of our ideas". The ideas are therefore derived from our sensors that act as receptors to a given stimulus. Locke stated that "The senses are the most important

Descartes believed that the human soul was an entity separate from the human body that was used as to some extent as a pilot that conducted that body. Descartes separated the body and mid as completely different types of substance, which according to Descartes both came into contact in the brain at the pineal gland. Descartes chose the pineal gland because it appeared to him to be the only organ in the brain that was not bilaterally duplicated and because he believed, inaccurately, that it was uniquely human. As a result the soul as a rational body of it's own, in accordance with Descartes' theory could affect the body through commanding it through the nerves and thereafter the body in turn could also affect the soul, as a result Descartes had established the first account of the interaction between the nervous system as receptors the body and the mind. Descartes made a separation where the soul as immaterial is used by humans as the judging entity, then the mind is simply the pilot of the body which interprets that body as an instrument, and finally the body, Descartes describes simply as a machine, all of these entities as separate ones left a problem which was how events all events coincided, and for this Descartes claimed that through the act of God they were made to coincide. Descartes chose the soul as the judging entity of man since he believed that because mankind, due to the imperfections of the human world, could not perceive the idea of God, there had to be a separate spiritual link between the two in order for the principle of God to be innate. Hence God must therefore be an innate principle stamped upon our soul. Unlike Locke, Descartes was a true believer that the human knowledge was innate to us, and the soul as the pilot of our body was the bearer of those innate thoughts.

In conclusion to Locke's thoughts toward the senses and the importance that they carry towards learning it is obvious that Locke saw the senses as the primary source if not the only source of all knowledge as it is through those senses that humans perceive all experience. This argument is further backed by the fact that Locke on more than one occasion threw attacks onto Cartesian theorists and their rationalist theories of learning and also innate ideas, claiming that these were not possible due to the fact that ideas such as God which Descartes claimed to be innate "do not enjoy a universal consent," and furthermore "it is evident, that all children and ideots, have not the least apprehension or thought of them." (Essay concerning the human understanding I.ii.5) Furthermore Locke argues that it "is near a contradiction, to say that there are truths imprinted on the soul, which it perceives or understands not." When thereafter Descartes replied that all human minds have the capacity to recognize the truth of innate principles, once they come to understand them, Locke replies that to have the capacity to come to know it you must already know it and that made no theoretical sense.

The senses as our receptors to the outside world were however split into two categories depending on their quality of perception. These are described as the primary and the secondary qualities of the senses. Locke made a basic distinction between the two, arguing that firstly, Primary qualities are entirely inseparable from body. They are known to be primary because the senses consistently find them to be the same, in other words they are perceptions that cannot be altered by factors such as heat or light, which might, for example, affect the colour which the object or stimulus could be perceived. Therefore solidity, shape, and size are all primary qualities. The Secondary qualities, in Locke's terms, are qualities of perception that could be perceived differently and are dependable on surrounding factors as well as the individual themselves. Consequently effects such as colour, odour, sound, warmth, and smell are all secondary qualities. These qualities can

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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)