Epistemological Questions: Non Sequiturs, Incoherence, and Mere Rhetoric by Which I Mean Ideas, Truth, and Meaningful Thoughts
Using my limited thinking skills, as they are. I want to look at the problem of truth-seeking. First, being a good scientist, we have to assume that Truth (X) is out there. We need to postulate that it, in fact, exists. What does that mean? The implications are huge. We believe that the world "out there" is intelligible. That we live and exist in a cosmos, an ordered universe that behaves itself.
Is this true?
Is this starting premise true? Well, how do we know this? Because if this isn't true than all other questions are pointless. We need this starting point of logic to be sound.
But let's assume for a minute that (X) does exist. That's a big assumption. How do we arrive at it? How do we find Truth? Given our limited intelligence, our subjective nature, our limited communication skills, our flawed language, how can we possibly know anything for sure?
Religion has been picked apart as metaphor, imprecise and outdated. Science has been proven socially bound, culturally impeded, and linguistically flawed. The only real knowledge anyone can claim to own or possess is within themselves, and here's the kicker: you can't express it. Once anyone says anything, it becomes tainted by human, conceptual limitations. In much the same way the painter chooses the paints he uses and the strokes he makes, we begin limiting our canvas with the words we use and the sounds we make.
So we end up having two levels of uncertainty. Probably more. We don't know for sure if the world is an ordered heaven and we can't express it even if we wanted to.
So what do we do?
Should we all just close our mouths and experience the truth within, bound by our circumstance, alone in our singular certainty, unable to share it with the world? Sounds kind of depressing.
Should we all strive to define and widdle our way to an agreed upon interpretation of what it is we all are experiencing? Isn't this what we have been doing? Look where it's taken us.
Or maybe we can doing something else. Maybe we should all agree to that which is within us without words or description. Perhaps we could forgo the confines of conventional communication. There is a quote from poet G.K. Chesterton:
“There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.”
Perhaps this is what we are talking about. Maybe when words fail we then begin to get to the heart of the matter. Maybe this is the only truth we'll ever know. Maybe this is the only real truth we can convey to each other.
Maybe. :)
Is this true?
Is this starting premise true? Well, how do we know this? Because if this isn't true than all other questions are pointless. We need this starting point of logic to be sound.
But let's assume for a minute that (X) does exist. That's a big assumption. How do we arrive at it? How do we find Truth? Given our limited intelligence, our subjective nature, our limited communication skills, our flawed language, how can we possibly know anything for sure?
Religion has been picked apart as metaphor, imprecise and outdated. Science has been proven socially bound, culturally impeded, and linguistically flawed. The only real knowledge anyone can claim to own or possess is within themselves, and here's the kicker: you can't express it. Once anyone says anything, it becomes tainted by human, conceptual limitations. In much the same way the painter chooses the paints he uses and the strokes he makes, we begin limiting our canvas with the words we use and the sounds we make.
So we end up having two levels of uncertainty. Probably more. We don't know for sure if the world is an ordered heaven and we can't express it even if we wanted to.
So what do we do?
Should we all just close our mouths and experience the truth within, bound by our circumstance, alone in our singular certainty, unable to share it with the world? Sounds kind of depressing.
Should we all strive to define and widdle our way to an agreed upon interpretation of what it is we all are experiencing? Isn't this what we have been doing? Look where it's taken us.
Or maybe we can doing something else. Maybe we should all agree to that which is within us without words or description. Perhaps we could forgo the confines of conventional communication. There is a quote from poet G.K. Chesterton:
“There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.”
Perhaps this is what we are talking about. Maybe when words fail we then begin to get to the heart of the matter. Maybe this is the only truth we'll ever know. Maybe this is the only real truth we can convey to each other.
Maybe. :)
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