Facts, the ideal illusion. What do the people on this forum think?
Hello everyone, first post/discussion on this forum!
I want to share and discuss my philosophy about the nature of conclusions and thought. What it means for something to be unknown and how not the knowing, but the unknowing is where the fruits of life can be found.
Although I will show my manner of thought I am always open to any view and perspective and would love to hear others opinions.
I do not believe in facts nor do I believe in good or bad. I do not believe that we truly know anything. Facts are only an ideal perfection, something we would like to achieve but cannot. People tend to search for answers, people tend to find fulfillment in knowing. But the only true meaning in knowing is a reason to stop thinking. It gives us a reason to process the things that happen in our day-to-day lives, a way to move on. Nothing is certain, you can never define all factors, all details, everything in and out about a given question. We make ourselves believe that we know, that that is where meaning can be found in life. But the only value "knowing" may bring is a reason to stop thinking, a reason to stop learning more. Is the value not found in the question rather than the answer?
Why not learn more about a certain subject by asking more questions? To try and grasp a slice of the infinite truths of life? I do not believe in answers, I do not believe in good or bad. I believe in infinite questions, not infinite answers. But I also do not believe what I am writing now is correct, or false. Thought itself is abstract, just as language. A row of letters on a screen, pixels, everything that is and is not. Maybe everything is something else, maybe it is not. I simply do not know, I only can think about what may be, not what is.
Thoughts:
Am I wrong (if you believe in the existence of wrong)?
Do you believe in the existence of facts, or that about everything we know there can be asked more questions than there can be answers?
Are you able to name a fact and if yes how do you know completely certain there is one?
I want to share and discuss my philosophy about the nature of conclusions and thought. What it means for something to be unknown and how not the knowing, but the unknowing is where the fruits of life can be found.
Although I will show my manner of thought I am always open to any view and perspective and would love to hear others opinions.
I do not believe in facts nor do I believe in good or bad. I do not believe that we truly know anything. Facts are only an ideal perfection, something we would like to achieve but cannot. People tend to search for answers, people tend to find fulfillment in knowing. But the only true meaning in knowing is a reason to stop thinking. It gives us a reason to process the things that happen in our day-to-day lives, a way to move on. Nothing is certain, you can never define all factors, all details, everything in and out about a given question. We make ourselves believe that we know, that that is where meaning can be found in life. But the only value "knowing" may bring is a reason to stop thinking, a reason to stop learning more. Is the value not found in the question rather than the answer?
Why not learn more about a certain subject by asking more questions? To try and grasp a slice of the infinite truths of life? I do not believe in answers, I do not believe in good or bad. I believe in infinite questions, not infinite answers. But I also do not believe what I am writing now is correct, or false. Thought itself is abstract, just as language. A row of letters on a screen, pixels, everything that is and is not. Maybe everything is something else, maybe it is not. I simply do not know, I only can think about what may be, not what is.
Thoughts:
Am I wrong (if you believe in the existence of wrong)?
Do you believe in the existence of facts, or that about everything we know there can be asked more questions than there can be answers?
Are you able to name a fact and if yes how do you know completely certain there is one?
Comments (15)
Welcome to TPF!
Including this?
So... then are you saying that it's not bad to smack an old lady in the head with a shovel, or to kick puppies, or to knowingly and deliberately cause unnecessary harm?
Do you know that you do not believe in good and bad?
Many facts aren't ideal perfections written in stone, they're relative, provisional, ephemeral, context dependent, general or specific bits of information that help us navigate the world and achieve goals (whether "foolish" or "wise").
Heres what Steven J Gould had to say about facts:
That is a good description of what facts and knowledge are to me. They are information which is adequate to make decisions about potential actions. Of course the information might be wrong, but there comes a time when you have to act even though there are uncertainties.
You say you dont believe in facts, but every day you act as if you do - you make decisions and act based on the information you have.
It's s fact that these marks on this page are words. I know it for certain since I wrote some of them, they're published and open to read.
Also known as 'nonsense'.
There are no true facts in this concept because out of a human concept, things just are, they arent true or false. Interesting concept, I can explain further.
There isnt really another practical definition of a pure fact, and its hard to formulate one even if there could be one. For example, if you take a pure fact to be something thats true in every context, and take any statement, that statement will have sections that are defined a specific way but could be defined differently by different people and therefore not true in their context.
Despite all this, there are still truths that are absolute, if not pure. We can thank our brains for creating specific contexts and allowing us to use highly useful human fabrications such as language, logic, and truths.
One of the most appealing parts about this philosophy to me is that it works in the context of this question. This is only really an applicable answer in some interpretations of the question, using some definitions.
And finally, my commitment to practical philosophy requires me to mention that this is practically a good thing, as it allows us to interpret the universe in our context, and determine what we trust and what we dont.
Quoting Plex
Do you know that for sure? Why should anyone agree with you when your own conclusion concludes you're not certain?
Quoting Plex
No. If I need to know how much I can spend this month and not run out of money, I need the answer.
Quoting Plex
If there are no facts, then what we're learning by asking more questions are not facts either. So what are we doing?
Quoting Plex
Think about it for a second. You believe in nothing, can assert nothing, nor convince anyone of of anything. This strategy of, "We can't know anything' is what people do when they find it difficult to understand how we do know, and abandon all hope and pretend that providing no answer is somehow intelligent. Its not. Its the abandonment of intelligence. Its a trap of the mind to avoid thinking further.
Its giving up.
Quoting Plex
Yes. You can't say you're right. To do so, would be to assert a fact. I assert facts. You cannot assert I'm wrong, because me being wrong would be a fact. You can't even assert your own argument is real. I win by default.
Quoting Plex
Yes, the fact that you can read and write. If you could not, you could not read or reply to this answer, nor could you have written your OP. If you want to really think about what knowledge is, read here:
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/14044/knowledge-and-induction-within-your-self-context/p1
There is a summary right after the OP that captures the points.
Quoting creativesoul
Yes, truly I do not.
Quoting creativesoul
No, I am not stating that kicking a puppy is not bad. I am simply implying that it is a manner of perspective and culture. You cannot say eating pork is bad just because you or a certain group thinks that way. Perspectives are not a source of defined answers. Simply because morality on its own is an abstract truth that has different meanings for different folks. Just like you used an old lady and puppies as an example, showing how you would see that as a more "extreme" bad thing to emphasize your argumentation. But maybe I believe puppies are terrible beings, maybe I do not think they are cute (I do ;)) Mabey for cultural reasons I kill them, who knows. You can simply not define a perspective, which in nature I believe all "facts" are. More a source of interpretation and mental processing than the actual piece of information that is brought.
As cited: Quoting T Clark
There is no complete certainty, we round the numbers of reality by decimals. Trying to know as much as possible but never can every degree of accuracy be defined. It is simply infinity. Like the title says: "Facts, the ideal illusion". It is an ideal scenario to know things as facts, but calling it facts is the illusion many people tend to base their reality on.
Yes, I do agree with your points. Facts are the nature and necessity of decision-making.
But:Quoting Plex
I would argue that the awareness and acceptance of not truly knowing things is where a lot of meaning and acceptance can be found. I also tend to state that the unknowing is a source of endless curiosity and discovery. When we accept that things are just as they are, facts. We tend to process it and not think about it as much having the result of lessened learning and understanding of our world. I am not saying you should keep thinking about things and never move on. But simply the mindset revolving around processing information can greatly increase the likelihood of creativity, discovery, and interest developing and being used.
Quoting jkop
Are you sure about that? For something to be certain you have to be able to define the thing you are certain about. If you do not know what something is you cannot say it is present or has certain values. As said by the Patterner:
Quoting Patterner
If you can truly define something, you can answer all questions, which are infinite. Lets propose a situation using your example:
"It's s fact that these marks on this page are words. I know it for certain since I wrote some of them, they're published and open to read."
So how do you know those are words? Maybe because you can read them. Then what defines reading? Maybe the scientific description of the processing of information. But yet every research has variables it is influenced by. And even if the research was perfect, there are still infinite questions to ask about it. It simply does not stop. I could also make it simpler by saying: "How do you know anything is real", "or do you perfectly know every variable of reality?". If you can answer every possible question, every shape that infinity presents. Who knows, but right now I have no reason to believe infinity is a realistic thing to obtain. If you cannot define anything, you can not state any properties of anything as a "perfect" fact.
Quoting Wayfarer
Also known as the face of reality which many people do not like, but yet cannot escape. People want to know, want to understand. But knowing every detail possible for infinity is not a realistic manner of thought. Or do you have an argumentation to support your statement? I am always open to hearing it.
Hi Plex, I'm also new here. Welcome.
I think there is one thing I know, and that is that "I exist" or "I am", as they call it. But then, I do not now that you exist (you could be a bot). You also do not know that I exist. So in the end I do agree that we do not know anything.
There are shades of knowing. If we have mutual understanding what numbers are and how we can add them up, we can be pretty sure that 1 + 1 = 2. Math is not very dependent on our external world, but it does require a shared perspective. And you can only hope that these perspectives do align.
It the book "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy", numbers behave differently inside a restaurant. So there you have it, we know nothing for sure.
The point of my post, and Gould's quote, is that you're applying an inappropriate standard of what is required for something to be a fact. There will always be uncertainty, but there comes a time when we have to use the information we have. That's what people, including you, do every day in our regular lives. Questions of truth and knowledge come up all the time on the forum and they usually get all tangled up in this one issue. We humans don't need facts the way you want to define them, we need good enough information to allow reasonably effective decisions.