My Fundamental Hypotheses

One of my recently acquired interests is Epistemology. Don't give me that blank look, it's a perfectly legitimate topic for someone my age to be interested in. Or not.Ok , fine, it's not. So what is it you ask? Well, the philosophy of knowledge/science of course. In other words, it's an attempt to answer the question: "How do we know that we know what we know?"Ok , fine, blank look again. Let me put it in context. I claim to seek the truth. I have made this my personal goal in life, a priority over many other goals. Cheesy I know, what can I do. If I am going to go down this path seriously, at some point I have to define what I mean by truth. The scientific method is nice and dandy, but apparently it is not enough to define truth. Epistemology has much more food for thought to give us. So, after a bit of reading and a lot of absurd thinking, I present to you the three hypotheses that I have realized the foundation of my world is built upon. If they are false, I'm in deep trouble. I call them hypotheses because I cannot prove them to be true. In fact, I don't think anyone can. yet.

1. You all are real and fundamentally similar to me.

Here's a thought: What if you all don't exist? What if everything around me is an illusion, projected by some unknown entity? What If I am the only real mind around? Or even if you do all exist, how do I know this is not some huge Truman-Show style conspiracy? How do I know you are not all paid actors? Well, I don't. And I have no Idea how I could prove it, so I just accept it. If anyone of you has a clue please fill me in. But should I trust you? Hmm...

2. We are not all being collectively deceived by our senses about the nature of reality.

Ok, so you do exist and experience things more or less like I do. What tells me that we are not all being played for fools? You know, Matrix-style stuff, but without the feeling that 'something is wrong'. Everything feels fine, we're just trapped in a virtual reality. Or maybe we're an idea in someones head, or a simulation in someones computer. Mind you, I am referring to fundamental facts like laws of physics. When we get to more complicated stuff, like social phenomena, agreement is much more difficult to come to. But we all agree on a few things as being objective and these are the things I am referring to. So, do we know if it's all just a big lie by some big guy? Sorry, no. So let's just accept that it's not, shall we?

3. The laws of nature will keep on behaving tomorrow like they did yesterday

Aka. the problem of induction. So we have established this moment. You are here, I am here and here is real. more or less. But will reality behave the same way tomorrow? Let's take gravity for example. If I drop something in a vacuum, it will fall towards the center of the earth at a fixed acceleration, depending on my location. If I stay at the same location and try the same thing tomorrow , it will fall with the exact same acceleration again. Will it? Well, it has until now. For as long as we've been measuring the laws of nature they have been behaving consistently. Our observations have been identical and repeatable. There has never been a credible observation of something falling towards the moon (when dropped close to the surface of the earth) for example. But what does that tell us? For all we know, the laws of nature may be set in such a way that tomorrow they start behaving differently. All we have are our observations until this moment. For all our models, theories, theorems and laws, we cannot claim to know what will happen the next second. Our physics is only as good as the observations that validate it. As long as the observations are stable, we're safe. So I happily assume that stuff around us will keep behaving more or less the same way. What else can I do after all?

Now I can imagine lots of people wondering why on earth I would make dark and hopeless thoughts like these. Well it's simple. For one, because I can. It's fun to challenge everything! Ok , so you don't agree. What's more, they help me bring my mind back to zero knowledge. I'm not the only one that makes these hypotheses, we all do. It's just that I'm making them explicit. (Of course I'm not trying to say I am the only one who does. Much smarter people have thought of this stuff before.) By doing this I get a true perspective of how little I really-really know. An ancient Greek guy once said "I know one thing, that I know nothing". It's something like that. Makes you be much more cool-headed in your assertions.

Finally, it is a huge motivator in learning more about what is going on within these hypotheses. Assuming they are true, there is a heck of a lot we can learn within them. And maybe, just maybe somewhere within this body of knowledge are the keys we need to unlock these hypotheses themselves. Makes you wonder why on earth we do anything other than frantically trying to figure out whatever we can about the world around us. My favourite off-the-wall-crazy idea is that we are left here with clues as to what is really going on, but we have to find and read the clues before the time runs out. I cannot prove it is true. I don't even believe it's true. But I know it could be. Can you prove it couldn't be?

So this is my first foray into the crazy but fun world of Epistemology. Based on these simple hypotheses, I think I can safely start building my world up. I am not yet taking a specific school as being correct but I have ruled a few out based on these hypotheses. Solipsism is out and truth relativism (i hope this is the correct use of the term) is out as well. Just because if they are true, there's not much meaning in actually doing anything other than the pursuit of pleasure. Other than that, just these hypotheses. If they are true, all is good. If they are not, let's try not to think about it.

Confusedly yours,
Alexandros