Knowledge and Knowing

"True knowledge can only come from the senses."

Debates about knowledge and knowing are complicated by the fact that that which is referred to by "knowledge" and "knowing" are two different things and yet are assumed to be the same thing.

"Knowing" refers to an internal state, feeling; while "knowledge" refers to an external state of being, a "something" that can be shared with other people.

"Knowledge", therefore, is a social phenomenon which itself can be true or false, that is, have a basis in objective fact or simply a shared belief which may or may not have an objective basis.

We may all perceive that same reality (more or less), but differ in how we interpret what we perceive (what we know) may radically differ.  Humanity is fortunate in that it agrees on its interpretations of the basics of life, perhaps because these things leave little room for interpretation.

Conservatism: A definition

Conservatism.  To be conservative. To take a conservative approach.  Conservative: to take a cautions approach in one's interaction with the world.

To over-simplify, conservatism is the philosophy that taking action outside of traditional or known protocol is more likely to cause personal harm or loss than is, to simply restrain behaviour -- and therefore, outcomes -- to within those that follow protocol and thus avoid more, personal unanticipated, harm, inconvenience, loss.  In other words, "I'm happy and comfortable where I am. Your wish to change society, if implemented, has a high probability to cause me harm, inconvenience, loss ....  I therefore I oppose your wish to change society, that is, 'the protocols of society's behavior' because that would result in my discomfort, harm, inconvenience, loss ....

Protocols, i.e. "That's the way we do things around here.  That means, everybody's got to do it that way, no exceptions." 

Conservatism has the structural characteristics of Christianity:  It is exclusive (the belief and worship of only one god is allowed, everyone in society must behave the same way), and it is missionary (spread the good word that this is the best way to live).  Both, Christianity or Conservatism, are the best and only way to live.  It is not necessary that a Christian be a Conservative, or vice versa.  These are independent values that can support each other, or not.

If the opposite of Conservative is Progressive, then it is possible to be a Progressive Christian.

Does this make the Progressive's Christianity different from the Christianity of the Conservative?  Does this mean a schism as significant as that between Catholicism and Protestantism?  With similar social consequences?  In the beginning, there was just one Christianity with many sects.

People are becoming alienated from rules and beliefs on which they based their lives.  The old gods were failing. 


In them, the life force is very closely held, guarded, protected.  For them, just staying alive is the purpose of existence.  In their hierarchy of needs, "my staying alive" is at the top and is the most basic.  Among the other needs are:  Power, sex, food, clothing, shelter, safety, education, comfort, Maslow's (physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization), freedom, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of money, and so on in no particular order.  So, if something were to threaten "life", its protection would supplant the concern for all other needs.



If you use a keystone word and you don't know what it means, what does this mean for what you are trying to say?

To answer Rodney King's "Can't we just all get along?", the answer is "No."

The Marginal Animal

An obsession of humans seems to be that of distinguishing between slight differences among commonalities.

Is this a by-product of language, which tends to fragment the world?

Or could it be a by-product of individualism, which narrows the focus of the person's concern to only the person themself?  And the ability to do this (and survive) could only have occurred in a society with sufficient surplus that allowed a person to survive without directly participating in the collective effort of survival.

Or could this be a manifestation of a scarcity anxiety created by a perception of a zero-sum environment, wherein a person a person perceives no help forthcoming form anywhere except themself -- that they believe they are utterly alone?

Two poles of human awareness (versus consciousness) are aloneness and community.  [With consciousness, one perceives that one is alone (a homunculus theory), whereas with awareness, one is alone, as in a state of being.  In this conception, awareness precedes consciousness.]

I want  to be ME, but among others like me.