Take from the authority
Expressions researched:
"take from the authorities"
|"take from the authority"
|"take from authority"
|"taken from authorities"
|"taken from authorities"
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
General Lectures
Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: Today we are discussing philosopher David Hume. He is probably the most famous of the British philosophers. He was very skeptical about achieving certain knowledge, so he came to the conclusion that the only knowledge we can possess is a mere sequence of ideas, none of which can be proved to be true. In other words, we can only derive any knowledge from our senses, but even that knowledge is mere assumption.
Prabhupāda: Yes. We say also, because our senses are imperfect, so there is no possibility of achieving perfect knowledge by sense exercise. It is not possible. That is our philosophy.
Śyāmasundara: He says there is no other source of knowledge except the senses.
Prabhupāda: No. We don't agree. Therefore it is called avāṅ-manasā gocaraḥ, adhokṣaja—there are so many names. The senses are imperfect. They cannot reach. Just like we cannot know what is there in the sun, but a geologist or astronomer, he can say, one who has studied. Therefore our process of knowledge is to take from the authorities. That is perfect. Our senses cannot read, that is a fact. But it is not that without senses, no knowledge can be... No. We receive by senses, but from superior authority, one who knows. That is perfect knowledge. According to him, there is no possibility of having perfect knowledge?Śyāmasundara: In fact, he calls the soul a bundle of perceptions, that it is nothing but a set or sequence of ideas.
Prabhupāda: But as soon as he says "ideas," there must be some concrete things.
Śyāmasundara: Yes. He admits that the external world is full of concrete things, but he thinks that we are also one of those things because we are only a bundle of perceptions. Our consciousness is only made up of our observations of material nature.
Prabhupāda: Yes. So far direct perception is concerned, it is like that. But indirect perception, taken from authorities, that is different.
Śyāmasundara: He distrusts any kind of authority and says that the only kind of things that we can know for sure are mathematical proofs and immediate sense perceptions. Like we can perceive that there is time and there is space, like that. That is the only knowledge he will admit.Conversations and Morning Walks
1977 Conversations and Morning Walks
Page Title: | Take from the authority |
Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
Created: | 20 of Nov, 2008 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=5, Con=2, Let=0 |
No. of Quotes: | 7 |