What Is Knowledge?

Recall the example of the disoriented pilot. They are lost because they became disoriented to the facts. Their only hope of survival is to re-orient themselves to the way things really are. In order to survive, "The Truth" has to become "their truth." 

Notice carefully that our lost pilot can't simply accept their false-orientation and wish their airplane to safety. That choice will result in certain death. The lost pilot has to restore safety by re-orienting themselves to the facts through any and all true information available to them. Of course, this process involves using reason to accurately discern the difference between true information and false information.

Sometimes an unusual attitude is caused by a faulty perception on the part of the pilot. Remember how truth is established by two or three witnesses? Consider this. The human perception of balance is primarily achieved by sensing motion through a function of the inner-ear, and cross referencing that data with information gathered through our peripheral vision. When we fly inside a cloud, we're forced to go without the supporting data from our peripheral vision. As a result, pilots often "feel" like the airplane is spinning out of control, when in fact it is flying straight and level. And sometimes they "feel" like the airplane is straight-and-level, when in fact it is spinning out of control. Our subjective perception of reality can be wrong. So how do we solve this problem?

We look to sources of information beyond ourselves—to transcendent sources of objective truth. We gather information from these external sources and allow them to correct our faulty subjective perceptions. In the pilot's case, they gather information from a variety of instruments purpose-built to clearly display information about the way things really are—the truth.

Of course, sometimes an unusual-attitude results when one of these instruments breaks. When this happens, the broken instrument will show false data. If the pilot acts on this "bad data," they will become disoriented and end up in a "bad attitude." So how do we account for this problem?

By not getting all of our information from one source—that is, by not being a fundamentalist! We can find our way to objective truth by not getting stuck in the Charybdis of subjective circular-reasoning. Pilots call this deadly hazard tunnel-vision.

The oriented pilot is trained to sample information from multiple sources, and then integrate this information into something called situational awareness. This is a pilot's worldview. Since pilots check and balance their worldview through a variety of information sources, including other pilots—we are able to quickly notice when one instrument is displaying data contrary to the rest. Thus, we can use our reason to identify "bad data" and discard it. We can likewise use our reason to identify "good data" and use it to orient ourselves to the facts. When pilots successfully do this, they can know that they are right-side-up and headed in the right direction. 

Are you? Might your perception of reality be mistaken? Might you have tunnel-vision on just one instrument? Might that instrument be broken? How do you know?

Imagine you're at the shopping mall and return to your car to find it vandalized. On a nearby sidewalk you see a man in blacked out sunglasses sweeping a pole from side to side. Are you going to ask him if he saw who vandalized your car? If you do and he answers with details, will you know what happened to your car? Or have you made a category mistake by asking a blind-man if he "saw anything?"

It's a foundational rule of meaning (logic) that every effect resembles its cause. This means that for knowledge to be sent from one thinker to another, the first thinker has to have it. Meaning flows from where it is to where it could be—just like water flows from a well into a glass. When this happens with truth, learning occurs.

Historically, this is why we go to school. It's where the knowledge is (or at least where it's supposed to be). It's in the books we read, and in the minds of those who have learned so they can share meaning with others (teachers). 

Knowledge is rightly interpreted information that flows necessarily from the Truth. And since the Truth is perfectly united to the facts, it is possible for thinkers like us to know Reality. But notice that knowledge requires information to flow from a trustworthy Source. 

Consider this carefully. If I hide my hand behind my back and ask you to guess how many fingers I'm extending, you'll have a 20% chance of guessing correctly. But you won't know how many. Even if you guess right, you'll have to trust me to confirm it without lying or cheating. You have to decide if I'm a trustworthy source of meaning or not. Then you'll have to discern if you are justified to know how many fingers I was extending.

Since being mistaken is possible, knowledge is impossible in the absence of reliable discernment. Applying objective discernment is the only way to notice the difference between truth and falsehood. And since you can't reliably discern truth all by yourself, meaning has to be shared. Indeed, the Perfect-Thinker has to share it with you.

To know facts, you must first discern the reliability of "your" source of truth. Is it you? Are you a perfect-thinker? Is it someone you trust? Are they a perfect-thinker? Think about it, because anchoring "your truth" to "The Truth" is the only way to tell the difference between your knowledge, and a potentially deadly false belief. 

You may "feel" just fine—but how do you know you aren't upside down in a fog of confusion as you plummet to a fiery death? Is "your truth" really justified? 

Do you trust it? Can you trust it?