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What does it MEAN, "to know"? (And why is it important?) |
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| Do you know if buying a particular stock
or bond is good? How about the best car? Life partner? Diet? Job? Career?
Friend? Politician? Night Club? Vacation? Every decision, every choice you
make, is based on your knowing. If you think about it, knowing
and the soundness of your knowledge will affect EVERY aspect of
your life. Some things you know (or think you do!) very well,
perhaps because you do something often or studied something. Other knowledge
you have came from a trusted friend, or you saw it in a book or on
TV.
A very large percentage of what we know, is simply "what we know". We don't think about how we came to know or the soundness of this knowledge, we make choices simply because in the background we have some unchallenged knowledge. For example: 1. "Computers have bettered the life of human beings", or 2. "Brazil is the 5th largest country in the world" or 3. "Nothing can spin in two different directions at the same time". 1. is obviously NOT the truth for everyone. 2. Brazil is larger than the continental USA, but became a smaller country than the US when Alaska became a state. 3. Using Quantum physics we are developing computers based on subatomic particles called "qubits" where the particles actually DO spin in opposite directions at the same time. How many opportunities do you sieze or miss, how many mistakes lead you in the wrong direction in your life, how many limitations have YOU placed on yourself, simply because you knew. When you say you "know" something, you are being a philosopher. Your personal 'style', your 'philosphy, determines how useful YOUR knowing is. My claim is that a combination of lack of reflection, old philosophy, and a paucity of good tools for evaluating and comparing OUR knowing with that of others is the number one cause of conflict at every level of business, civilization, society and relationships of every kind. We live in a rational, "cartesian" world that has served us well in science. The whole way we understand reality in the western world is cartesian. But what does that mean? It means that all of us are actually "Cartesian Philosophers". We think about the world and reality based on the ideas of the french philosopher, René Descartes. His ideas worked so well for manipulating the physical world, that his ideas, over time, became simply 'the truth'. He incorporated the ideas of Galileo, that everything could be explained by fundamental laws. It became "what we know" and no longer a hypothesis. Galileo and Descartes ideas changed the way we view the world and the way we understand what reality is. We live in a very different time than that of Galileo and DesCartes. OUR understanding of what we know still comes from that time, but it is becoming obvious to many that we need new thinking about our beliefs and truths. (a truth, known by philosophers as the 'truth bearer' can be any entity that can be true or false; a sentence, statement, idea, etc. Not necessarily a person) 1/17/06 - To be continued ... Jim
EpistemologyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin and scope of knowledge. Historically, it has been one of the most investigated and most debated of all philosophical subjects. Much of this debate has focused on analysing the nature and variety of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth and belief. Much of this discussion concerns the justification of knowledge claims. Not surprisingly, the way that knowledge claims are justified both leads to and depends on the general approach to philosophy one adopts. Thus, philosophers have developed a range of epistemological theories to accompany their general philosophical positions. More recent studies have re-written centuries-old assumptions, and the field of epistemology continues to be vibrant and dynamic. |
