Do we KNOW anything?

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~twristan May 31, 2012 Student Traditional Artist

Think about it for a second.

In front of you is a screen. How do you know it's there? "Why, I can touch it. And I can feel it. And when I look in the mirror, my eyes are red because I see the screen too much." That's all very well, good sir, but turn around. Now you cannot touch it, you cannot feel it, and you cannot see it. Once again, how do you know it's there?

With women, they just supposedly know things. There's even a term for it -- woman's intuition. But intuition can be applied to anyone at any time. Can you know something without being able to substantiate proof?

Baseball players, basketball players, tennis players, football players, soccer players, they are all athletes. Are NASCAR drivers athletes? How do we know what things are associated with what words?

If we go by this criteria for something to be considered knowledge:

1) The proposition is true.
2) I believe the proposition is true.
3) I have good reason to believe the proposition is true.
4) I have no good reasons to believe the proposition is false.

And if all criteria have to be filled, then the question arises: Do we KNOW anything?

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~whatzitoya May 31, 2012 Student Digital Artist

We say that we know things because our brain tells us. However, if we were to break away from human limitations, maybe what we "know" wouldn't necessarily "be". Maybe we are just limited to one plane of reality/existence and we can only "know" what we are limited to "know". If we could break away from our human senses, I would expect that we would see, feel, and know many different things than what we do right now, but the interesting questions are: which aspect of reality is real and which one is fake? Or are they both fake? Both real?

!StyrofoamB00ts May 31, 2012

Not in the strictest most demanding sense, no. And it's not really that big of a deal. It wasn't until skeptics like Locke or Hume that people got really hung up on the fallibility of man. Common Western thought up until that point fully acknowledged man's fallibility, but perservered anyways. Reasonable conclusions and axioms were enough for people. But now there's this line in the sand that's been drawn by some that suggests a conclusion that because we aren't omniscient, we can't ascertain right or wrong, true or false. Even the most Humean philosopher's reject this by their practice of philosophy. If anyone truly believed the implications of absolute skepticism they'd kill themselves, right there on the spot.

Fact is, we don't "know" anything the way that we know 1 plus 1 is two (and apparently even that's up for grabs). Whenever we say "I know" what we're really saying is "I have reason to believe." I know that Alexander the Great existed or I know that I'm going to go out for dinner tonight or I know that God is real or I know that the Clippers will never win the NBA Finals, etc, etc. It's all varying levels of probability. But that shouldn't deter us from seeking truth. It never has in the past. Plato said knowledge is nothing more than a correct belief, and I'm in agreement with that.

~Totally-dead May 31, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

~squirrels-are-evil May 31, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

The answer - SOLIPSISM

~The-2nd-Philosopher Jun 5, 2012

How do you know that there are no other people?

~squirrels-are-evil Jun 5, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

You don't, hence why I said SOLIPSISM

~The-2nd-Philosopher Jun 5, 2012

Solipsism is a belief that you are the only person in existence. Whilst it may be impossible to verify the existence of other minds, it is also impossible to verify their non-existence. Ultimatley Solisism itself cannot be proven

~squirrels-are-evil Jun 6, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

more or less, it says that the only thing that can be proven is yourself since that is where your mind, and everything associated with it, lays. Nothing else can be said to exist since they are separate entities

~The-2nd-Philosopher Jun 7, 2012

Cogito ergo sum

*EbolaBear May 31, 2012

beat me to it.

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