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Keep knowledge at arms length. Far enough away so that you can keep an eye on it, but close at hand for when it's useful.
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To an extent. I think a lot of what they teach in education is propaganda for something or another. But [i]everything[/i] we know isn't just something we're told. For instance, feelings towards people - I figured out how I feel about the people I know on my own - or clear-cut evidence. Like the fact water is wet. There's no denying that.
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Back in 1984, my worldview CRASHED (big time). All that I thought that I knew (had been taught) was exposed and much of it was a lie. This set me on a course to establish a new worldview. Now, if it is fact, or if it has enough evidence behind it, I accept it as part of my belief system. Life is VERY different today than it was then.
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Back in 1984, my worldview CRASHED (big time). All that I thought that I knew (had been taught) was exposed and much of it was a lie. This set me on a course to establish a new worldview. Now, if it is fact, or if it has enough evidence behind it, I accept it as part of my belief system. Life is VERY different today than it was then.
Many people have conflicted belief systems, so they work very hard against that which they desperately want
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some take the inherent knowledge v.s. empirical knowledge tack with that one. Inherent knowledge being everything that is passed on to us, everything that we are taught by someone else. Empirical being conclusions we reach on our own e.g. punching walls hurts hands etc..We can take empirical for the truth if we trust our own senses I suppose.
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Uncertainty is so paralyzing that one can either take the time to learn the truth or just pretend that one did. The latter solution is way, way easier, especially if one can avoid situations that threaten the charade. That's how many people live, but it doesn't mean the truth can't be known.
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I suppose on some level this is a semantic question.
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I suppose on some level this is a semantic question.
First though a correction, not everything one "knows" has been told to them. I "know" that I stubbed my toe. That being said the phenomena "stubbed toe" and the label "stubbed toe" are to different things. I believe we all have real objective experiences, and that the universe itself objectively exists. However in order to describe the phenomena within the universe we have to use labels. Labels however are either learned, or divergences or convergences from previous labels, whose sophistication increases as language develops. As a result of this increase of sophistication we have an improved ability to convey information, or "knowledge" between one another. The caviat of that, is that our perceptions are now filtered through complex language, where different labels mean different things to different people: this caviat means /description/ of /Phenomena/ is ultimately subjective.
As to whether what we "know" is the "truth" that is an entirely different question all together. Knowledge is filtered not only through language but many mechanisms of self preservation, so what we believe to be true is not necisarally the same as truth. In general though, through careful deliberate description we can cross check our different subjective perspectives and close in on a commonly percieved objective reality, which is "true" in so far as we can rely on its consistency until something proves us wrong,
In my experience engaging in this has the effect of rather then bringing me up to the peeks of awareness, the world seems to become increasingly flat, but also increasingly vast. Like so many others, I seem to only become aware of how little I know. I don't even know what I do and don't know.
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A journalist on a mission asked questions on the meaning of life and proof of a succession of people in a Buddhist setting -
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A journalist on a mission asked questions on the meaning of life and proof of a succession of people in a Buddhist setting -
The answers were like this
Novice in a Zen monastery : "I don't know"
5th ranked senior in Zen monastery: "We are discovering our paths towards truth and the proof is merely in how we live these truths"
Zen Master: "I don't know"
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Good question...Can anyone proove the answers to any big questions? All we can do is speculate about things that really matter, things that most seem to take rapture in fighting over...Looks to me like we'er all chasing our own tails...
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I know if I stand on the tracks in front of a speeding freight train I will die. I have never been hit by a train so technically this is a presumption and not a bankable fact upstairs in philosophy class.
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I know if I stand on the tracks in front of a speeding freight train I will die. I have never been hit by a train so technically this is a presumption and not a bankable fact upstairs in philosophy class.
I'd point out not one person has tried to prove me wrong yet either.
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Just worth mentioning, Descartes did the whole "I think therefore I am" rigamarole. It shows all we can know is that we are a thinking being that exists in some form or another, even if we are just a floating bit of thought in space that imagines it has a physical body.
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Just worth mentioning, Descartes did the whole "I think therefore I am" rigamarole. It shows all we can know is that we are a thinking being that exists in some form or another, even if we are just a floating bit of thought in space that imagines it has a physical body.
It is made to show that we only KNOW that one thing. However, a rationalist is going to present a workable version of what knowledge is that actually applies to our life. We know a lot of things, mostly unconsciously. A great deal of our knowledge is second or third hand--but that is okay, because most of us usually get it right anyway.
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I know nothing. This never happened. I wasn't here. You did not see me.
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I know nothing. This never happened. I wasn't here. You did not see me.
Nothing I think came from within me, but rather from without. I only know about me and do not claim to know about anyone else's knowing. Thoughts and ideas hit me from all directions and some of them stick. The rest will fall around my feet and I forget them.
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I can give you an example of something that I know and actually knew immediately the moment I first encountered the awareness.
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I can give you an example of something that I know and actually knew immediately the moment I first encountered the awareness.
No one had to tell me that I implicitly loved my grandson. There was no time lapse to consider things like, does he like me? Is he ugly? Does he smell ok? Just an immediate sense of BAM...we're connected.
This may not be related to the intention of your question, where maybe a belief system is formed over exposure to information over time, but in my mind, this is the very foundation of my belief system. All the other stuff that people teach or tell me is weighed against this single most important priority feeling for me.
Don't take my word for it. Have a kid. Support it to adulthood. Be nearby when they have a baby of their own and see what happens.
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I think that when you use absolutes, like everything and everyone, you are almost asking to be challenged ;)
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I think that when you use absolutes, like everything and everyone, you are almost asking to be challenged ;)
I'm pretty sure that /everything/ is an exaggeration. I am positive that I know things that no one had to tell me. As a very simple example to show that your hypothesis is not correct: I know that my cat's name is Samhain. No one told me that. I know, because I'm the one who named her; I know something that no one told me.
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One of the most humbling moments in life is when we were certain we knew it all and yet now, and occasionally the moment occurs just five minutes later, we understand how much we have to learn.
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it's called critical thinking.
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it's called critical thinking.
how do you "know" what to eat? as opposed to eating tin cans? /somebody/ told you and that somebody was told by someone else. now whether YOU think it's the "truth" or even the "right" thing to do..is pretty much up to you. you certainly don't have to take my word for it.
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It is possible to know things, however often people the word of others rather than taking the time to find out for themselves. An example of this would be the irrational nature and approximate value of pi, the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter. If you want to "know" here is a place to start:
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It is possible to know things, however often people the word of others rather than taking the time to find out for themselves. An example of this would be the irrational nature and approximate value of pi, the ratio of a circles circumference to its diameter. If you want to "know" here is a place to start:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PiFormulas.html
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It has become popular for people to claim they are star dust. The theory would appear to be sound but I've never witnessed it or seen a practical study done. We are incapable of the heat and pressure necessary to actually do what is being hypothesized. I accept the principle of it but I also accept the principle that Jesus brought a specific message from god. Science relies on a lot of simulations which can be designed with the necessary variables to give you the results you are seeking. Without understanding the language and mathematics of the studies, or the programmers of the simulation, we are at the mercy of the scientists or those we see as smarter then us to tell us their truth. I find a lot of people both around here and in the real world quoting these people and using others information to back up their logic. There are times were it works well but other times it appears, in my opinion, to miss them mark and it becomes a simple over generalization or blanket statement. I'm talking about both sides as well, religious and otherwise.
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