WORD EXPERIENCE - Henry McDonald

As according to the OED EXPERIENCE is defined as "The action of putting to the test; trial," " A tentative procedure; an operation performed in order to ascertain or illustrate some truth; an experiment," and "The actual observation of facts or events, considered as a source of knowledge." These definitions are very accurate and in agreement with the way that the word experience is used in the Kant essay. I realize that experience is not a terribly difficult word to understand, but I do indeed think that it is a very potent and helpful word to think about on a deeper level. I will offer two quotations that Kant uses: "There is no dount whatever that all our cognition begins with experience," and "Experience teaches us, to be sure, that something is constituted thus and so, but not that it could not be otherwise." These thoughts hold up under close scrutiny as true and I see these as valuable insights because the knowledge of the power of EXPERIENCE can do wonders to further our own cognitive, spiritual, and mental development. I would like to conclude on the following quote from T.H. White's The Once and Future King, "Experience is the essence of education, and the essence of education is self reliance."