FA+
Shop
Blog 1: Epistomology
10 years ago
Before i start, i'll say some things about what's happening in my life. It's currently 6:03 AM, so that means my sleep schedule is doing well. Right on time too, because i start classes this week, which i'm really excited for. The school said that if i worked hard i could go from having 2 credits to having graduated highschool by December 2016. Which is great because i'd love to finally get school behind me and really focus on being productive in society. Other than that, my birthday is coming up in less than a month. I'm excited for this because it'll be the first birthday i get to celebrate away from my crap family.
Now to the good stuff, epistemology. This really is something everyone needs to think about, because it ultimately works to define everything you think. That is, what is truth, and how do you know truth when you see it? Now it's important to make a distinction between words, and the meaning of words, and things that actually happen in the real world. If the statement "X is true" is a coherent argument, that doesn't give us the freedom to go apply that to everything we see. This is called The analytic–synthetic distinction. The idea that our axioms and definitions don't say anything about the real world seems obvious, but this is something a lot of people need drilled into their head. For example, when discussing something like morality, it's tempting to think that people are sort of above the law. But really, in the real world, we're bound to consequentialism. And so we make decisions based on potential outcomes, and NOT because of morality. (The sad part, is this is something that's been known for like 40 years, and i still need to explain it to people.) So now onto the question, what is truth? Well truth isn't anything that exists, it's a label we put on propositions, there's no essence of truthiness you can quantify. The important part here is how we decide what gets the label of truth and what doesn't. Now, i'm not qualified to talk about the right way to do this, or the wrong way to do this. Personally, i like pragmatism. Basically, if an idea is useful, and it can produce practical consequences, then that's what i like to label as true. If something fails in that goal, then it's not true. I like this ideology because it generalizes well, and it leaves the door open for things that aren't intuitive.
I haven't decided on how i'd like to format these blogs, or how often i'd like to do them, so just bare with me and i'm sure there'll be a pattern eventually.
PS it's now 7:30 and i've woken up a bit to realize how meaningless this was. note to self: don't blog immediately after waking up.
Now to the good stuff, epistemology. This really is something everyone needs to think about, because it ultimately works to define everything you think. That is, what is truth, and how do you know truth when you see it? Now it's important to make a distinction between words, and the meaning of words, and things that actually happen in the real world. If the statement "X is true" is a coherent argument, that doesn't give us the freedom to go apply that to everything we see. This is called The analytic–synthetic distinction. The idea that our axioms and definitions don't say anything about the real world seems obvious, but this is something a lot of people need drilled into their head. For example, when discussing something like morality, it's tempting to think that people are sort of above the law. But really, in the real world, we're bound to consequentialism. And so we make decisions based on potential outcomes, and NOT because of morality. (The sad part, is this is something that's been known for like 40 years, and i still need to explain it to people.) So now onto the question, what is truth? Well truth isn't anything that exists, it's a label we put on propositions, there's no essence of truthiness you can quantify. The important part here is how we decide what gets the label of truth and what doesn't. Now, i'm not qualified to talk about the right way to do this, or the wrong way to do this. Personally, i like pragmatism. Basically, if an idea is useful, and it can produce practical consequences, then that's what i like to label as true. If something fails in that goal, then it's not true. I like this ideology because it generalizes well, and it leaves the door open for things that aren't intuitive.
I haven't decided on how i'd like to format these blogs, or how often i'd like to do them, so just bare with me and i'm sure there'll be a pattern eventually.
PS it's now 7:30 and i've woken up a bit to realize how meaningless this was. note to self: don't blog immediately after waking up.
