Second blog post - Theme 1: Theory of knowledge and theory of science
During the seminar most of us had a similar understanding regarding Kants and Platos texts about the metaphysical questions on how to obtain knowledge. But when we discussed, more thoroughly in small seminar groups we found that our thoughts differed a little.
Platos method of obtaining knowledge, through dialectic was interesting to compare with Kants Critique of Pure Reason which discusses a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge.
It led to the discussion and the analysis of whether people who are highly aware are more depressed than others. Some decades ago, people who was considered suffering from depression was said to be hypersensitive. Hence mentally unstable. Is it possible that their perception of our surroundings is more intense and therefore making them more aware. Because they are analyzing the human existence and puts it in relation to the Universe, e.g time and space.
If everything is relative, who is the judge of the truth?
So how we experience the world and look at everything, how do we know that, that’s the truth? We know it is our truth and it corresponds to what we have learned in our culture. We are the ones who have enacted laws in our society and we should obey them. In other cultures, there are other truths that exists and they have other laws they must comply.
So is there a universal law? And does every human intuitively know about it?
During the seminar, we also discussed Kants 12 faculties that shapes our initial perception and the understanding of an object.
The world known for us humans, would not exist without the human experience of it. Kants faculties of knowledge are the knowledge of the world in itself. Through our perception it is the way the world exists in time and space.
What made the most impression on me was that it is humans who creates God, then we follow the commandments that we indirectly have created ourselves. And so we see God as omnipotent though it is we ourselves who have created him. So initially, is it the human being who is God?
And we must believe that there is another higher power or truth. Because we can not comprehend what we have not created and what is beyond space and time.
Very interesting thoughts about a point that hasn't been a lot developed. (from what I read so gar at least).
SvaraRaderaI would like to say, on the hypersensitive people that are more aware than others, that I don't think this is related otherwise they would as well be hypersensitive about the good part of being a human being, they would see the second qualities (Kant's point of view) from both side. But this is only speculation.
You point out an interesting question that I would have loved to hear more about from you: The universal law and do we, as human, intuitively know it? Or is it something that we give to our children through socialisation and society ? I'm gonna have to think about this now...
For the God part, the Bible said that God created human at his image when mostly this is us human that created him at our image, a better one.
Moreover what we can't comprehend now (I.e outside time and space) doesn't mean there is something magical or that we will never know. It will simply be a myth that we tell our future generations until we have the right tools to answer those questions, a new era of enlightenment.
Very interesting reflection :)
You have a very interesting discussion regarding perception and how it can be connected to depression. Personally I don’t believe it’s necessarily ”being more preceptive” that makes a person depressed, as I think that a person that is aware of their surrounding is able to enjoy it as well. Metaphysical questions are simply scarier for some people than others.
SvaraRaderaI agree with you on the idea of various truths in different cultures, as law and truth seems to be an cultural invention based on what we perceive as right.
I would like to read you thoughts on the rest of the questions as well (re. who is the judge of truth and the universal law). It seems to me like you have a lot of interesting questions but you haven’t fully discussed them all in the post. However, this is a clear and well-thought of summary of the theme and concepts of the week.
It is interesting that you also talked about the relation between mental illness and how one perceives the world, as we did in our seminar group. Our view was, however, more linked to conception rather than perception. You mention that people suffering from depression, a couple of decades ago were considered hypersensitive. I did not comprehend from your text whether you were talking about Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) which is a personally trait characterised by high social, emotional and physical sensitivity or just hypersensitive in a more general meaning?
SvaraRaderaI don’t think one can generalize and say that only because someone perceives something stronger, it automatically leads to someone also conceptualising it in a more thorough way. In another comment on your post, JaPaHe writes that highly sensitive people would not only consider the negative sides, but also the positive sides. This made me think about bipolar disorder and how people with it perceive the world as either fantastic or miserable, with no middle ground.
I think it would have been interesting if you in the last paragraph about God, would have included something about ontological argumentation.
You write that mentally unstable people might perceive their surroundings "more intensely", and that would make them more aware of whats happening around them. I agree with you in one sense, especially when applying that concept to hypersensitive people (an important note; hypersensitivity and depression is not the same thing). But I also reflected on whether mental instability might come from the opposite form of perception, too?
SvaraRaderaPerhaps some mentally ill people experience their surrounding too little, rather than too intensely. That their conception of the world, and hence their own existence, lacks proof or mirroring effects of what is actually happening around them? In other words, they are not putting their own human existence in relation to space and time. After all, it is a classic behaviour among mental ill people to turn inwards, to not engage in the outside world.
I think you did a good summary; it was easy to understand your thoughts and to read you post. You point out some interesting conclusion in you second blog post, for example about God.
SvaraRaderaIn your first blog post you wrote “so the similarities of the arguments stated by Socrates and Empiricism, is that they both consider knowledge as something we gain by using our senses”. I wrote similar conclusion, because modern empiricism states that knowledge comes from empirical evidence, observation and experimentation (sensor experiences). But I believe it’s some differences in their theory as well. What would you say is the different between Plato’s theory and modern empiricism?
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SvaraRaderaBy people who are highly aware do you mean - the more educated and intelligent people, because there is such saying that the more intelligent one is the more depressed he is. Is it so because the more the knowledge you gain the more you observe and realise how many things are independent from the human being and from one’s power to be changed?
SvaraRaderaAnalyzing the Universe and time in space in specific is main aim of the sciences, but still there are to many uncertainties that make one feel insecure and lost. This is why we are following our own laws in a desperate need to put order and systemise our lives.
You raise the question whether there is something that people know by intuition, but isn’t intuition dependent on our own way of seeing and interpreting reality?
You also state that it is through our perception that the world exists in time and space, but what if time is again a subjective matter? I have always wondered whether the concept of time is different than the one which we are used with. There is a theory that time is not linear. From our human perspective it is rational to see how one event follows another and this is how time is constructed, but there is a possibility that time is not divided by past, present and future. It might rather be all of those components in one located into the multi dimensional reality. We as people, however, can perceive it as we do because we cannot abstract from what we have been told and taught.
I think the examples you give are of great importance because the answer of what reality is, what the world we live in actually is might be much more simple and rational than what we have as an established perspective already. Our perspectives have always been dependent on sciences, and the fear that not everything is in the human control so it is good to keep asking these questions and seek for other alternatives.
You pose very interesting questions. Perhaps there is no judge of the truth? Maybe the truth is a product we have yet to come to by coming together and discussing different and/or opposing views? When it comes to laws, the truth might be what works for “our” society, where it came from historically and the direction we want it to go in. But then there is always a thesis and an antithesis, the combination of which aims to create better laws and a better society. Unfortunately, that’s an endless process and we can’t know where we will be in, say, 200 years.
SvaraRaderaThe question about God is indeed a very interesting one. Maybe God is a myth and his/her invention was an attempt to explain things people in the distant past had no knowledge of? I personally think so. If you look at the different religions, the similarities between them are astounding, which points to the theory that different peoples in different parts of the world observed the same astronomical phenomena, just described and explained them slightly differently.
It’s also interesting to consider how the most social and equal societies have sort of turned their backs on religion (take Iceland, for instance). I can’t fully agree with this approach – there is definitely something to be learned from every religion and I think the main ones should be studied in school so people can take the best of them. Moreover, given how dominant consumerism is nowadays, it wouldn’t hurt to take a step back and be a little bit more spiritual, whatever God is – a myth, a creator or whatever.
Last year, I had the amazing honour of interviewing Morgan Freeman about his documentary on National Geographic, The Story of God. He and his team have travelled to many spiritual and religious places around the world and have done quite a lot of research. He believes that religion will always have a place in the world because it often answers questions that science can’t and because religious people and scientists are interested in the same questions. He gave an example with the Science academy in the Vatican and how it has never undermined Catholicism as a belief system.
He also said that the purpose of religion has been the same from the very beginning – social cohesion. Which makes you wonder where we went wrong; what happened that we’ve come to a war between Islam and Christianity? Why was the latter used as a weapon against people in the Middle ages? Do we have this inherent desire to be “on top”, superior, and so we turn the creations of our best intention into a means of achieving dominance? And when will this stop? Thank you for the interesting read!
I think the idea that people with mental illnesses observe things more intensely may have some truth to it. It reminds me of the saying, “ignorance is bliss.” Perhaps those who have anxiety or depression are more aware of how our perceptions influence our world views. It would be quite difficult to have to process information and then also be constantly processing how our sense perception differs from others. I could see how this overthinking would lead to mental instability. On the other hand, I think it is more widely accepted that the mental illness causes the overthinking and not the other way around.
SvaraRaderaI think the idea that people with mental illnesses observe things more intensely may have some truth to it. It reminds me of the saying, “ignorance is bliss.” Perhaps those who have anxiety or depression are more aware of how our perceptions influence our world views. It would be quite difficult to have to process information and then also be constantly processing how our sense perception differs from others. I could see how this overthinking would lead to mental instability. On the other hand, I think it is more widely accepted that the mental illness causes the overthinking and not the other way around.
SvaraRaderaI agree with you that we had quite a several interesting point of views that occurred on the seminar thanks to the group discussions. Your posts supplemented each other and I was pleased to find similarities to my own perceptions.
SvaraRaderaEspecially the final paragraph leaves space for further discussion about the God and whether there it could actually be something like you call the "higher power or truth". When you start to think about it, it's very easy to say that yes, the concept of God as we usually think about it (with the human-kind features we often relate to it) is indeed a product of imagination. But what about something rather "mystical" that is nothing like the human mind has ever thought of? Again though, the limitations of our own thinking comes into the way.
Thank you for profound and reflecting posts, you really seem to have thought this topic through!