Personal Narrative: My Epistemological Confusion

Epistemology Confusion

Epistemological confusion is an integral part of the human experience, a perennial

problem that faced our Neanderthal ancestors as much as it does neuroscientists and

Astrophysicists. The quest for knowledge entertains us, excites us, and causes us to fight,

quarrel, and can even lead to war. Stimulated by an every-present thirst for knowledge, I

have come a long way since commencing my own personal quest but questions linger and

will probably plague me for the rest of my life. The notion of certainty perplexes me in

particular: how can people be sure of what they know, when so often theories and ideas

are turned on their heads.

Religious belief remains a contentious issue, at the heart of much

At

the root of my confusion, I have discovered a few specific issues that may be problems because

of my personality or my personal background or both. These issues include the interface between

nihilism and mysticism which I find present in Buddhist philosophy; and the failure of the

scientific method to answer overarching questions about human consciousness, spiritual

experience, or ultimate causation. At the core of these specific issues lurk broader, more

generalized epistemological questions.

There are some who do not maintain that human beings are human persons as I do. These differences in view indicate that here we are faced with a problem about the recognition of what we take human beings to be as we experience them, and so as we experience ourselves.

Obviously, the facts, say, about our embryonic beginnings--as much as the beginnings of other animals--are well known to biologists and to most of us; the facts are the same, they are written in good biology books. Yet these facts, these realities, are seen to be different, interpreted to

It is my belief that it is impossible to separate the two without

doing an injustice to the logic of life. If we fail to follow that logic, no matter if it leads us to a

conclusion that we don't want to see, we empower tyranny over the weak.

Epistemology is the theory of human knowledge. It is concerned with the origin, structure, methods and validity of human knowledge. It deals such mental phenomena as thinking, perceiving, knowing and understanding. A major assumption in epistemology that would seem obvious--but is still important--is that the logical structure of the human mind is unchanging. There are several schools of thought or theories on how knowledge is gathered or attained in humans. To a degree, they should also apply to the knowledge in animals.

Apriorism is a school of thought that believes that knowledge is innate. This philosophy believes that humans can acquire knowledge of a special sort, called "a priori knowledge" via non-inductive means. They differ, however, in their accounts of where such knowledge comes from. Two broad families of apriorist views can be distinguished in this