Ebook: To Know or Not to Know: Beyond Realism and Anti-Realism
Author: Jan Srzednicki (auth.)
- Tags: Epistemology, Logic, Modern Philosophy
- Series: Synthese Library 244
- Year: 1995
- Publisher: Springer Netherlands
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- pdf
l. THE GENERAL PROBLEM OF EPISTEMOLOGY There is a philosophical issue that surely precedes all other possible questions. It concerns the very possibility of our thinking about some thing to some purpose. Short of this no philosophy, theory or research would be possible. But it is not immediately clear that we are assured that what purports to be effective thought, and cognition is such in reality. What guarantee is there for instance that when one is under the impression that one is thinking that "the cat is on the mat" it is in fact the case that one is thinking this? One could not be thinking at all, only having a misleading mystic experience. And then even if one was thinking, one might not be really thinking of the cat being on the mat, but only that one wishes there was a cat, and wonders whether if there was it would be on the mat, and yet the subjective impression was that one was thinking: "The cat is on the mat" (the same picture might stand for both the thoughts mentioned). Then one might in some way try to think 'the cat is on the mat. ' yet be mistaken in that there aren't any material objects at all, and all one does is to inventory god's perceptions. And so on, and so on! These are of course the kind of problem that the layman habitually views with disdainful alarm.
The theory presented here represents a radical departure from current treatments of the theory of knowledge. It makes the point that all such work is based on the false assumption that what makes knowledge possible is in itself knowable in some way, whereas in fact it is below the threshold of any cognitive consciousness. It is therefore necessary to seek the basis of the possibility of knowledge on entirely different levels, and in entirely novel ways. To Know or Notto Know is the first presentation of the theory in full, earlier writings being only preliminary and brief. It is aimed at the general philosopher, and the specialist in the field of epistemology, but relevant to anyone who would understand how it is possible to know anything at all.