"What can we truly know?" part 1- theories of knowledge

Subject : What Can We Truly Know? A Critique of Kants

Posted Date: : 28 Aug 2007, 13:25 (1st posted on MySpace)

What can we truly know?

(part 1 of theories of knowledge)

"I think therefore I am!" Renee Descartes

Descartes said "I think therefore I am" and by it he meant that this was the most fundamental, indisputable knowledge that a man can have both of himself and the world that surrounds him.

For he argued that all other knowledge is comparative, only knowable through the use of sense-perception, tainted by that original sin conferred by birth… and by the fact of our limited existence.

If you think carefully about such simple acts as perception and recognition you would realise that uncertainty is the norm and not the exception. And yet in our daily lives our minds, quite reasonably, tend to dissipate and limit those very real uncertainties. For in a World plagues by uncertainty wouldn't we exhibit pathological behaviour.

I know of instances where my eyes have deceived me or my ears have heard what no-one else has heard. At times our senses make fools of us… and at other times our minds correct the lack of our senses. Have you seen the up close photo of a tall building… is the photo lying… or is it that we don't see it like that when we are there because we automatically correct for the deficiencies of our sight? Our senses impinge on our minds, they are filtered, coloured and perceived according to our circumstances, according to what we expect to see; according to our past lives experience. Sometimes this corrects deficiencies, and other times it causes us to miss what is there. Recall the Zebra's camouflage! Just because you don't expect it, it doesn't mean it's not there.

We are the slaves of our senses, but what we do know is that we can know…. And that he argued is sufficient proof for our existence… that we are or rather that "I am!" Because you O my reader….you are in a probability a figment of my imagination.. a wraith that walks the pages of MySpace paying no heed to argument or sense.

This is what Renee Descartes, I believe, said and thought. That, there can be no other fundamental knowledge other than the existence of our own selves.

BUT I beg to differ. And differ I will in the most marvellous of ways.

I agree with Emmanuel in that, that we think and can know. However can this thinking and knowing not point to some other fundamental fact of existence?

If we first disregard the inevitability of our complete dependence on our sense-perception, then we could ask: "When can we say that we know a thing and why do we say it?" And this could lead us to answer the more fundamental question of "Why in fact do we endeavour to think at all? And What indisputable fundamental knowledge can we know?"

When can we say that we know a thing and Why do we say it?

When you close the door of your bedroom at night, how do you know that the World still exists outside of your room?

Plato in the Republic (c. 370BC) illustrated an appropriate thought experiment, he asked us to imagine a race of men chained up in a cave. They were chained such that all that they could see were their own shadows projected onto the cave's wall. They talk to one another, but hearing the echoes bounce off the cave walls, they believe that they and their fellows are the shadows.

The World is real and our perceptions paint a true representation of the World we live in because by using both we are able to satisfy our needs and desires. Reality becomes concrete in our mind's eye because when we conduct continual experiments aimed at satisfying those needs and desires, whose very assumptions are underpinned by the fact that the World is real, our needs and desires are (at times) fulfilled. At other times they are not fulfilled because of the act of another, or of an unknown or unknowable variable, or just because we have not learnt as yet how to behave in a manner which will lead to the desired effect. But what we can know is that our circumstance / position / or only our knowledge of what does or does not work CHANGES.

We know food to be food by it's calming of the cramping pains of hunger, and water is known to be water by it's quenching of thirst. This keyboard that I type on is real for me because I can see first hand the fruits of my labour. This paper that you are reading is real for you because it can change your perceptions of reality… Of course it could also be real for you because you can cut and paste it and submit it as your own!

These continual experiments that we are constantly unaware of doing, paint for us a picture of a World that is constant and consistent in nature.

It is by my ability to act and by acting change my environment, that the environment becomes real for me. If I were not able to do this, and if my experiences were to unfold about me without my being able to interfere, the World would become less real and less substantial. Just like a movie being played on a screen, there would be no feedback, little to no learning and less reason for being.

For a Quantum Physicist an electron is more real in a sense, than for a Taxi-Driver. However, if the Taxi-Driver had a CR Television and knew a bit about it's working mechanism… the electron would become more real for him. Another striking example is the Moon Landing of 1969, for most people it is real, but for Astronauts and Astronomers it is more real because it interacts with their needs and desires- i.e. the possibility of further space travel and more Moon Landings. But for a sizeable minority (including said author) of people it did not happen. For them the Moon Landing holds less charm than opposing conspiracy theories.

So we say we know a thing when it impinges on us and when we can impinge on it… in the sense that it can be used to satisfy within us some need, even if the only need is one of knowledge… of knowing!

I CRY therefore I AM!

When a baby is born into the World, the first act that we look for and anticipate is its crying. It's being in need; whether it is for food, warmth or comfort; is what first causes us to recognize that it is alive. Likewise, it is our desire to fulfill our own needs that causes us to think, whether those needs are for certainty in an uncertain world or for the more fundamental needs of security. Therefore it is my needs and my act of seeking their fulfillment that defines me as being alive and that defines who I am.

So a more accurate concept of the fundamental fact of my existence would be "I am in need, therefore I am" rather than "I think therefore I am", because it is the act of being in need that makes me think.

This blog satisfies the need for me to seek self-actualisation (Maslow's theory of behaviour). For me to be what I can be, to express what I am thinking! 

HUWA…. HE is!

As a baby "I cry (I am in need) therefore I am". But before a baby can act and physically interact with the world in order to satisfy its needs, it's need is satisfied by another. This is the second fundamental fact of our existence.

As we grow and learn to interact with the World and those in it. We loose hold of the essence of this miracle; which is the fact that we can act to fulfill our needs. We feel that we are self-sufficient, capable and able. But in reality we are just as we were as a child, dependant on another. Irrespective of who that Other is...our Dependance is undeniable. 

This is the second fundamental fact of existence. That He IS (Huwa)! 

It is this fact that points to the existence of a Merciful God who in the instance of our childhood places love and compassion between ourselves and our Mother, Father and Carers. 

And it is HE who made this place of abode constant, a place of rest and gave us the ability to seek our fulfillment.
As God (Allah t'ala) says in the Qur'an "No Change will you find in the Laws of Allah (Sunatul Allah)". Refering to the fact that the laws He has laid down for Creation remain the same, immutable and unchangeable laws. Those same laws that hold in myspace, hold in yourspace. Those that hold in your living-room, hold in mine. And this is a miracle of the greatest of sorts.

It was Einstein who said among other things: "Isn't it a wonder that the we are both able to comprehend the World about us, and that furthermore that the World is comprehensible!" It's a miracle and a wonder beyond expression that we can both understand the World and that the World is, and can be understood!

The Two Fundamental FACTS of Existence

That I am in need, and that HE (Allah t'ala) fulfills my needs!

I am in NEED therefore I am. My NEEDS can be and are fulfilled therefore HE IS.. GOD is REAL, the EVERLIVING... owner of all that is EVERLASTING.

Praise be to God, who created me in need and fulfilled my needs. Who sent our Master Muhammad (saw) that we might believe. For verily we would not have been believers save because of Muhammad… so O Allah t'ala, you are the Doer of Good, the lover of those who do Good… reward Muhammad (saw) with the most magnificent of rewards, and send our salutations down upon him and your peace and blessings in abundance… upon him, his family, his companions and his nation (umma). Ameen.

The first part of this is an expansion of ideas I wrote during an essay entitled "Risk and Rationality!" for an MSc Paper in Decision Sciences at LSE (1998).

Insha –Allah I will write later about how Islam calls to life… a follow on topic to this!

Shafi