Socrates spoke about belief, true belief, and knowledge 2,500 years ago in Plato’s Meno. Belief can exist before knowledge. There is true belief as well as false belief. Knowledge simply has more verified facts attached to it. Certainty, however, is a separate epistemological issue.
Socrates also said that he knew that he knew nothing. Absolute certainty of knowledge isn’t logically possible (unless it comes directly from God), since all knowledge is known by and for oneself, regardless of its source. Since one begins with little or no certain knowledge — though Socrates believed people have some innate knowledge, at least of mathematics — one must first believe things that arise from outside oneself. Relying only on oneself, it is difficult to be an absolute authority about anything without the possibility of doubt — except, perhaps, for one’s own existence.
There are skeptics and cynics who even deny that the self is real, or that anyone truly exists. They suggest the world might be a hologram and human minds mere self-aware subroutines in a program that simply disappears when the machine is turned off.
I prefer to believe the Bible and in God because it is such a remarkable book — unlike anything else produced in its time. Caesar’s The Civil War was brilliant writing, yet it has nothing comparable to the algorithmic depth and brilliance of the Bible. One can believe the Bible while still knowing that one’s own knowledge or interpretation of it may be incorrect at points.
No comments:
Post a Comment