Theory/Praxis

In our everyday lives we see, hear and say a lot of things. We read the newspaper, we e mail each other gossip and events, and we even read blogs on other people’s opinions (which are not as intellectual or academic as mine...). Everything we are told in everyday life, we usually take as fact because, well, we’re hearing it. Usually it is from a credible source like the news or CNN. However, what do we really know to be true? The study of epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with the limitations of our knowledge. So what do we really know to be true at any time? Technically you could say that the bridge between what we believe and what we know is truth, but we cannot really know anything for sure. The only thing we can do is doubt everything around us, and if we doubt than it means we’re thinking and if we’re thinking than we exist. In other words, as René Descartes said, I think therefore I am (which became the idea of Western philosophy). Such a simple sentence, however it can explain so much. Everything we as humans really know, in five words.


Works Cited

"Epistemology." Wikipedia. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation. 7 Oct 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemology.

"Cogito ergo sum." Wikipedia. 2008. 7 Oct 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_think_therefore_i_am.