do you ever fear that you know nothing at all?
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I do think it is possible to "know" some things but you are right, one has to work past our many presuppositions to discover it. In fact, I'd say "unknowing" is a big part of "knowing." Heck, just considering that presuppositions may be in the way is more than a lot of folks will ever admit!!!
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, when the US space program was going strong, the US government got a think tank together to investigate what would happen to humanity if we met another species.
One of the things that worried the think tank most was what would happen if it turned out that our knowledge was fundamentally flawed, and we lacked the capacity to the superior knowledge of another intelligent species. What would happen to our religions and our sciences?
Recent experiments in physics have suggested that our view of reality may be fundamentally flawed, in that there may be no objective reality either locally or non-locally. Whether this is true is debatable, but the implications for natural philosophy are profound.
In computation theory, it may turn out that our brains sit on an 'island of computation' from which a view of a more fundamental reality hits a brick wall and gets stuck. That is, the very fabric of our brain may make a fundamental understanding of reality computationally impossible. In this case, there would be a profound effect on the dominant academic paradigm of the last 500 years. We would have to shift to 'tending our garden'.
From a more religious point of view, the more I focus on the present moment, the more I realize how little I know. To me, what people can know is narrative. So what is your narrative? If you have one, then you truly know something unique and important.
One of the things that worried the think tank most was what would happen if it turned out that our knowledge was fundamentally flawed, and we lacked the capacity to the superior knowledge of another intelligent species. What would happen to our religions and our sciences?
Recent experiments in physics have suggested that our view of reality may be fundamentally flawed, in that there may be no objective reality either locally or non-locally. Whether this is true is debatable, but the implications for natural philosophy are profound.
In computation theory, it may turn out that our brains sit on an 'island of computation' from which a view of a more fundamental reality hits a brick wall and gets stuck. That is, the very fabric of our brain may make a fundamental understanding of reality computationally impossible. In this case, there would be a profound effect on the dominant academic paradigm of the last 500 years. We would have to shift to 'tending our garden'.
From a more religious point of view, the more I focus on the present moment, the more I realize how little I know. To me, what people can know is narrative. So what is your narrative? If you have one, then you truly know something unique and important.
I am currently a doctoral student and I am learning A LOT about the human body. And I seem to have a knack for asking questions that result in something like "We don't understand that part yet." We don't know everything by far. And the more I learn, the more I see that I don't know. Really, I know very little. Do I know anything at all? It really doesn't matter to me, because I'm okay with that. I don't need to control the universe.
Agreed. I thought about this a lot in my early years as a philosophy student in undergrad school. When I went on to law school I applied the same kind of analysis to facts and began to worry that I mistook knowledge for wisdom, which I probably did at the time.
I fear that too, but from a little different angle. Rather than only doubting myself, I tend to doubt humans' ability in general. It seems to me sometimes that all knowledge gathered is a pile of subjective misguided claims. And at best, this subjectivity is well hidden behind formulas and fine language. I'm not interested in this subjectivity that much. I mean, it's interesting to study on its own, but before all I want to get to some senses of indisputable reality. It seems this will never fully happen, which is very frustrating for me.i fear that sometimes, that nothing i know has any basis in reality and in fact is just a product of my own misguided perceptions
I love how in certain parts of the body "Grey's Anatomy" is just an estimate. 85% of the people have 3 muscles. 12 % have 6. 2% have 4 etc....
Sometimes the nerve runs around this muscle, but sometimes it wraps around it and goes through....
Holy crud its complicated in there.
I'm glad you know you don't know. That's knowing a lot compared to some doctoral students.
This really reminds me of Buddhist philosophy. Everything that we perceive is subjective and thus defined by our limited perceptions. Our reality is not the Ultimate Reality and we see a glimpse of this truth only when we drop our notion of the self.i fear that sometimes, that nothing i know has any basis in reality and in fact is just a product of my own misguided perceptions
Yes, your and all of our (humanity's) perceptions are inaccurate when compared to objective reality which is not filtered through our nervous systems. However, your subjective truth is true to you and thus it is no less valid than anyone else's truth. So you are not any more "misguided" than anyone else! Sorry if this post is confusing. I'm not actually a Buddhist but I have studied it extensively.
I have that feeling all the time. It's not really fear, but it causes me to doubt myself very often, usually leaving me feeling utterly worthless. I don't think that I really should view it as something negative. When I start to think about it, I realize how little I really do know and as new information is always pressing on, I feel that I'm constantly in a state or re-evaluating my knowledge base. I feel that I must do that, it's not even conscious, it's a constant turning of the wheels below the surface in order to sift out what is important to hold on to and what is not. However, the feeling that I should retain everything, know everything, is still very strong.
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We all try too hard to learn everything, to be able to do everything. We can't, full stop. Once you accept that, you can view life in a more relaxed way, and recognise the place of humans, as receivers rather than creators. It gives you the freedom to stop analysing and put things into perspective, and lower your expecations of yourself.
I dont fear that I dont know anything at all. its cos i KNOW i dont know anything at all.
first off, I've failed to answer the first 2 questions in my life.
what is real?
how real are what our senses tell us. ( like how do you know that your eating is ice-cream. it might taste like ice-cream, look, smell, etc etc. but how do you know its really that. like if i took away your sight and taste, would you still know it as ice cream?)
first off, I've failed to answer the first 2 questions in my life.
what is real?
how real are what our senses tell us. ( like how do you know that your eating is ice-cream. it might taste like ice-cream, look, smell, etc etc. but how do you know its really that. like if i took away your sight and taste, would you still know it as ice cream?)
I think there's 2 classes of "real" - subjective real (what happens to you), and objective real (what "actually happened"). The first is easy to define - anything you experience, think, feel, imagine, etc - those are all real because those are all experiences you had. The flower you see, the ice cream you eat, the daydream you experience - these things are all (subjectively) real.
Objective real is harder to define because I can only know my own subjective real experiences. To understand objective real would require complete dissociation from this world, this universe, this life.
And now I come to an interesting thought. I believe that God knows what's objectively real simply because I believe He's omniscient, etc. Yet God is also interested (and invested) in this world, this universe, in our lives. So He also must understand each of our own unique subjective realities too. Wow. Must be tought being God.
Feel free to ignore that paragraph - I'm not trying to turn this into a religious thread.