{"quotes":[{"text":"Only after the concept of knowledge has been based on an ontological relation [*Seinsverhältnis*] can we work out the particular kind of being from which the principle of immanence-to-consciousness (the starting point of Idealism and Critical Realism) mistakenly proceeds as though from a primary insight. This is the being of 'being-conscious' [*Bewusst-Seins*]. All being-conscious must first of all be brought under the higher concept of ideal being, or, at all events, that of irreal being. The mental item which presents itself in the experiences of consciousness may be real; being-conscious itself never is. However, the concept of consciousness is derivative in not only this sense. Consciousness also presupposes the concept of knowledge. Nothing is more misleading than to proceed in the opposite direction and define knowledge itself as simply a particular 'content of consciousness,' as we see if we oppose, to the particular kind of knowing and having-known which we call consciousness, another kind of knowledge which precedes it and includes no form of being-conscious. We will call this knowledge *ecstatic* [*ekstatische*] knowledge. It is found quite clearly in animals, primitive people, children, and, further, in certain pathological and other abnormal and supra-normal states (e.G., in recovering from the effects of a drug). I have said elsewhere that the animal never relates to its environment as to an object but only *lives in it* [*es lebe nur 'in sie hinein*']. Its conduct with respect to the external world depends upon whether the latter satisfies its instinctive drives or denies them satisfaction. The animal experiences the surrounding world as resistances of various types. Hence, it is absolutely necessary to contest the principle (in Descartes, Franz Brentano, *et al*.) that every mental function and act is accompanied by an immediate knowledge of it. An even more highly contestable principle is that a relation to the self is an essential condition of all processes of knowledge. It is difficult to reproduce purely ecstatic knowledge in mature, civilized men, whether in memory, reverie, perception, thought, or empathetic identification with things, animals, or men; nonetheless, there is no doubt that in every perception and presentation of things and events we think that we grasp *the things-themselves*, not mere 'images' of them or representatives of some sort.Knowledge first becomes conscious knowledge [*Bewusst-sein*], that is, comes out of its original ecstatic form of simply 'having' things, in which there is no knowledge of the having or of that through which and in which it is had, when the act of being thrown back on the self (probably only possible for men) comes into play. This act grows out of conspicuous resistances, clashes, and oppositions―in sum, out of pronounced suffering. It is the *actus re-flexivus* in which knowledge of the knowledge of things is added to the knowledge of things. Furthermore, in this act we come to know the kind of knowledge we have, for example, memory, ideation, and perception, and finally, beyond even these, we come to have a knowledge of the relation of the act performed to the self, to the knower. With respect to any specific relation to the self, this last knowledge, so-called conscious self-knowledge, comes only after knowledge about the act. Kant's principle that an 'I think' must be *able* to accompany all a man's thoughts may be correct. That it in fact always accompanies them is nevertheless undoubtedly false. However, the kind of being (indeed, of ideal being) which contents possess when they are reflexively *had* in their givenness in conscious acts―when, therefore, they become reflexive―is the being of being-consciously-known.'from_Idealism and Realism_.","author":"Max Scheler","tags":["epistemology","metaphysics","ontology","phenomenology","philosophy"],"id":452,"author_id":"Max+Scheler"},{"text":"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.","author":"Ursula K. Le Guin","tags":["epistemology","future","philosophy"],"id":851,"author_id":"Ursula+K.+Le+Guin"},{"text":"Besides our eyes, skin and the other senses through which we receive the shadows of the exterior reality, we have a 'mental eye' (intelligence) with which we can perceive reality as it is.","author":"Jesus Zamora Bonilla","tags":["epistemology","philosophy","science"],"id":1061,"author_id":"Jesus+Zamora+Bonilla"},{"text":"The Bible is clear: Truth exists. It can be known. And when we ground our beliefs in it, we are rational.","author":"Patty Houser","tags":["absolutism","belief","beliefs","bible","epistemology","rational","rationality"],"id":1126,"author_id":"Patty+Houser"},{"text":"Scientists study only those aspects of the universe that it is within their gift to study: what is observable; what is measurable and amenable to statistical analysis; and, indeed, what they can afford to study within the means and time available. Science thus emerges as a giant tautology, a 'closed system'. It can present us with robust answers only because its practitioners take very great care to tailor the questions.","author":"Colin Tudge","tags":["epistemology","science"],"id":14313,"author_id":"Colin+Tudge"},{"text":"How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.","author":"Carl Sagan","tags":["awe","cosmology","epistemology","god","organized-religion","religion","science"],"id":21404,"author_id":"Carl+Sagan"},{"text":"Certainty is the most vivid condition of ignorance and the most necessarycondition for knowledge.","author":"Kedar Joshi","tags":["certainty","epistemology","ignorance","knowledge"],"id":22021,"author_id":"Kedar+Joshi"},{"text":"But, though all our knowledge begins with experience, it by no means follows that all arises out of experience.","author":"Immanuel Kant","tags":["epistemology","experience","knowledge"],"id":22056,"author_id":"Immanuel+Kant"},{"text":"He who has a true idea simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived.","author":"Baruch Spinoza","tags":["epistemology","metaphysics","mind","philosophy","spinoza","truth"],"id":22777,"author_id":"Baruch+Spinoza"},{"text":"Without causality in the world, there is no point in educating people, or making any moral or political appeal.","author":"Felix Alba-Juez","tags":["epistemology","philosophy","science"],"id":29029,"author_id":"Felix+Alba-Juez"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":104,"pages":11,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}