Welcome! Hope your week is going well!
So I am working on the third book in my Critical Thinking series for beginning readers. This one is on epistemology (see, I know the big words) i.e. how do we know a thing? It’s going to be titled, “I Don’t Know Jack.”
The fact that I don’t know Jack came to me while studying philosophy, where all manner of bizarre ideas are endlessly debated. I always say most arguments can be resolved if we first define our terms, so I looked these up:
Historical Accuracy? “The quality of being part of history…” wait, no, that’s circular…”the quality of being part of recorded history as opposed to prehistory.” Aha, if it is written down, it is historically accurate? Wow, that’s a load of fresh steaming cow manure. O.K. forget it, there is no good definition for “historical accuracy.”
Scientific Accuracy? The closeness to correctness or truth of a statement or result. Aha! Now we’re on to something. What is truth?
Truth? The quality of being true. (!)
Fact? In accordance with reality.
Reality? The world or the state of things as they actually exist. (According to?)
At this point in the pursuit of how I know anything I always feel like abusing some substance or other, but I don’t have anything more exciting than coffee, so I’m off to get a cup. Would you like one?
On the bright side, I don’t feel so lonely now. They don’t know Jack, either.
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