In order to examine the question of, "how do we know what we know", one must first examine how we learned what we know. Generally, an individual is taught what he knows either through social interaction or observation of his society. Individuals learn meaning, and thus an understanding of his subjective reality, through communication and the use of symbols. Language is the most common symbol by which one acquires an understanding of reality. Words have no concrete meanings within themselves, rather they are symbols for a concept or entity. As children, our parents point to objects and teach us words for those objects. Our parents also teach us words to describe emotions and other intangible entities. Through the use of symbols and language, we also acquire an understanding of concepts that are taught to us as concrete truths, such as religion. Our reality is taught to us through communication and the use of symbols.
Thus, we learned what we know through the mechanism of symbols. Society taught us the nature of reality through the use of symbols. But what if we had been taught different concepts with different symbols as children? Would our realities be completely different? How different would you be if you were raised to fear Christianity, and taught that you must eliminate Christianity to glorify your god. What if you were taught by everyone that you love and trust that your pleasing god will ensure that one thousand virgins will be waiting for you in heaven upon your death? Men are very driven by primal passion, and I can see how a man might decide to become a suicide bomber if he truly believes that he is not only glorifying god in the most valiant way, but he is also ensuring that a thousand virgins will be waiting for him in heaven when he dies. What a deal...glorifying god, gaining respect from your society, and acquiring a harem of virgins all for yourself! If your parents and society whom you trusted implicitly taught you this, you might believe it and live your life according to these teachings. These beliefs may sound silly to people who were not raised with them, but they are considered to be reality and truth by some people in other cultures. In contrast, your beliefs might be considered silly to some people who were raised differently. All of our tastes and aversions are taught to us as children.
"The structures of society become the structures of our own consciousness." - Peter Berger
There is no evidence that anything is "evil" or "good". The concepts of evil and good are taught to us as children. Aside from the fact that our society teaches us that certain things are good or evil, we have no way of really knowing if anything in our lives is good or evil; moreover, we have no way of knowing if anything we were taught is true. If you think about it, everything you know was taught to you, either by your parents, the scientific community, or culture. And our parents, our scientific community, and our culture learned what they know from their parents, scientific community, and culture. Everything in life merely exists, and human beings give meaning to existence. Thus, you could say that the only truth is that everything is meaningless until the individual assigns meaning. However, even if one accepts the fact that all of life is meaningless and meaning is socially conditioned, we still live in the reality we have learned and therefore it is difficult to escape. The concept of living in a dream can be applied here...
When one considers the idea that we might be living in a dream, the general impression is that our "true" self is "out there" somewhere dreaming, and that our reality and everyday experiences, such as attending la sierra, are a dream. However, consider the idea that perhaps our acquired beliefs and social conditionings are the dream. We believe so strongly in the ideas and concepts that we are taught as children that they become our realities, however, these ideas and concepts are taught to us and may not truly exist; thus, living your life according to these ideas and concepts would be like living in a dream...all that you are living for would not be real. Perhaps the true reality is that life has the meaning that we give to it and that we can choose that meaning, by living actively, instead of living passively according to what we have learned from society.
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