Understanding Consciousness, Knowledge, and Truth
Consciousness is everything we perceive; it encompasses all our conscious acts. In consciousness, we distinguish two elements: the subject (the self that knows) and the object (that which the subject is aware of).
Purpose simply means that we intend what we think. Consciousness must not be empty of content.
Types of Objects of Consciousness
- Ideal Objects: Products of our intelligence that do not exist in reality, also called “beings of reason” (e.g., mathematical concepts, fictional characters like Don Quixote, the square root of 2).
- Real Objects: Represent real things that occur in the sensory and cultural world (e.g., a house, a dog, laws, customs).
- Values: Qualities of objects that make us perceive them as good, bad, ugly, or beautiful. Our wishes and feelings allow us to capture them.
Degrees of Knowledge
Knowledge is being aware of something; it is the relation between a subject and an object. There are different degrees of knowledge:
- Doxa: Knowledge based on sensory information and opinions.
- Episteme: Knowledge that involves ordering and interpreting sensory data through reason.
Sources of Knowledge
There are two sources of knowledge: experience and thought. Through thought, we process the information we get from experience. Experience must be prolonged through thought. The experience submitted to us directly and immediately is called intuition, which can be sensible or ideal.
Concepts and Categories
- Concept: A scheme of information that allows us to identify something and include it in a category.
- Category: Groups of objects defined by a concept, allowing us to classify and organize objects.
For Kant, knowledge is only possible when we have sensitive data and apply it to a category. The three properties of experience are appearance, existence, and evidence.
Evidence and Certainty
When discussing the truth or falsity of something, we may experience:
- Doubt: Uncertainty about the truth or falsity of something.
- Suspicion: A hunch that something may be true, but without justification.
- Review: Assenting to something without complete security.
- Certainty: A firm adherence to a belief or affirmation, without fear of error.
Experience gives us a certainty that we cannot deny.
Principles of Knowledge According to Edmund Husserl
- We cannot give our assent to what is not presented as evident in our consciousness.
- Evidence can be overridden by other, stronger evidence.
Criteria of Truth
- Corroboration: A claim must be submitted for corroboration, demonstrating its strength.
- Consistency: Truth must be consistent with itself and with other known truths.
- Practical Application: The practical consequences corroborate the truth of a theory.
- Universality of Evidence: There is evidence that only the private self experiences. Truth can only be founded on evidence that any rational person might have.
Truth
Truth as Fitness (Plato and Aristotle)
Truth is the connection between thought and reality. The idea of truth as fitness is very old. We all live in the same reality but in different worlds.
Truth as Corroborative Evidence
Truth is sufficiently verified evidence.
Reasoning
We call reasoning the thinking that follows the laws of logic. Logic is a set of procedures that allows us to reach a truth if the starting point is true.
Uses of Rationality
- Theoretical Rationality: Deals with theoretical truths, whether ideal (mathematics) or real (natural sciences).
- Practical Rationality: Deals with practical truths that should guide behavior, especially ethical truths.