How can we ever decide we really know anything? I ponder this more often than is decent. There are innumerate sayings that acknowledge knowing, if you will: “Knowledge is power”, “Know thyself”, “Know me before you judge me”, “If I/you only knew” etc etc. The list is non-exhaustive. This poses two points: One is what on earth do all of these meaningless sayings that we chuck around actually have to do with real life, and the other is what is it to know? For example: knowing someone in the biblical sense is usually different from knowing someone from having met them once – depending on what you did last weekend. Knowing a subject usually involves knowing it from one angle – the angle that's rooted in the bias of your source/s. The addiction we have to knowing things, while also having our best interests in ignoring that which does not confirm our beliefs, is a worrying one. That is essentially what this blog is about.
I don't know anything. I promise you that I don't know anything at all. You might argue that I know I don't know anything – but in actual fact I might know a great deal without realising I've stumbled upon some truths. We all might. Without a Great All Knowing One, how can we ever know we know anything? We are the sum of our experiences – I think I know that, I have plenty of evidence to support that. I also think I know that most conflict arises from some form of insecurity. I also think I know that because of these two things we should be working together as people and not suffering constant competition and having tv shows, ads, books and movies incessantly reaffirm competition as our status quo.
To get to the real nitty gritty - how do you know you know anything? Seriously? Is it a convenient lie you tell yourself so that you feel safe - that you can actually know anything? I'm fairly sure that is what it has been for me. To be fair - if we never did anything because we could never be certain of the outcome, nothing would ever happen right? In essence we have to at least in part think we know something - like that the earth is spherical or that we are governed by gravity - or indeed that we are ruled by benevolent humans... All of those things are debatable. It is to this end that I make my appeal - not for us to sit around in bewildered shock that we cannot ever really know anything - but to remember that we cannot take anything for granted, we are always constantly learning and growing and hopefully consciously evolving! That even if we think we know something - we need not be arrogant about it.
I think...
I think...
by the time i did a BSc, MSc and a PhD the only thing i knew for sure was I know fuck all. The more you learn the more you realise how little "we" about everything. great that yopu have had this insight without doing all the stuff I did, it was awesome though
ReplyDelete1 + 1 = 2.
ReplyDeleteThat, you can be sure of.
What is 1? What is 2?
DeleteAm I real? Is this a strange dream? Is this a movie script? Is time all happening all at once but we perceive it as long and drawn out and linear?
Might just be me, but I don't think I can answer any of those questions adequately. I am sure of nothing.
What really gets me is when people (themselves or otherwise) think those who can articulate their own 'knowledge' are super intelligent. When verbalization is simply a skill and knowledge comes in so many forms, or possibly none at all ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd, I've always thought it funny that know and no are the same word when spoken... coincidence?
... and yet it seems that the only way we can achieve anything, even really do anything, is if we assume that we know to be true what we think is true.
ReplyDelete(Of course that too is only something I think, not something I know to be true)
the biggest dilemma in this for me is whether it is still reasonable to think that I know or understand something better than someone else, just because I seem to me to know or understand enough to see a flaw in their argument.