We don’t know things as they are. We only know what our mind makes of the appearance of things—and that could be anything.
Things are what they are—regardless of what they appear to be and what we think of them.
Your Honda might seem like a Honda—but for all you know, it might be Mount Kilimanjaro.
The universe might look like a universe—but it could just as easily be your ex-girlfriend disguised as a universe. You might think you know your wife—but in reality, she’s essentially unknowable. And you might be convinced you know Obama—but the truth is, he doesn’t even know himself. Not to mention the fact that you can’t even know the real you.
And yet, you think you know everything in the universe. In fact, the only thing I’m sure of is that you’re a know-it-all who doesn’t know shit.
But the point is, we need to realize the limits of human reason, instead of expecting it to know what anything really is in itself.
Now, some people might claim that you can know something entirely through your understanding. And they’ll use reasoning to prove that something is or isn’t the case. (Case in point: This asshole)
But the only thing they’ve proved is that they’re full of shit.
Your mind takes in the world through your senses—and your senses can only know appearances.
And all in all, your mind has created a “real” world that may or may not exist in reality.
Which really pisses me off. I mean, just once I’d like to know whether the apple I’m eating is really an apple, whether I really had sex with that drunk eighteen year old last Thursday, or whether I’m really the asshole my neighbor says I am. But no! I’ll have to live and die without ever knowing the reality behind what my mind makes out of appearances.
What a bunch of horseshit! Or so it seems. But for all I know, it might be cow shit, or pig shit, or even horse pee. I don’t even know if it’s bad.
And worst of all, my entire philosophy might appear to make sense, when it could just as easily be pure bullshit.
The Apology of Socrtes
Rene Descartes: Discourse on the Cane
David Hume: An Essay Concerning Concluisions...
Arthur Schopenhauer: The Glass is Half Full...
Nietzsche: The Anti Tzschurch & The Nietzschruth
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Eveything is Bull