Socrates once said, “I know that I know nothing.” Was he right? Let’s think this through. First of all, we know, or rather have reason to suspect, that the universe must be very large and complex. (Assuming there is a universe.) The brain also appears complex, but must be less complex than the universe because it is much smaller and appears to be only a small part of the universe. So it seems that our knowledge must be, at best, incomplete. But can we reasonably believe the little knowledge we have to be correct? Scientific theory tells us that our senses can only detect a small part of that tiny portion of the universe that impinges on our bodies. Unless we have some sort of ESP, we have no other way to obtain information. Personal experience tells me that I consciously perceive only a tiny part of what my senses are capable of detecting, and consciously recall later only a tiny part of what I perceive. Scientific theory tells us that what we perceive in our brain can be different from what impinges upon our senses. Studies have shown that people observing the same events can have very different perception of what happened, all of which can be different from what is recorded by mechanical devices. There’s an old saying in the computing business, “garbage in, garbage out.” But we’re not done yet. Psychologists tell us that our opinions, decisions and actions arise from our individual mental models of reality. So before we can use use our observations we have to somehow fit them into our mental models. But if an observation doesn’t fit, do we throw out our model developed over many years, assume that the observation must have been mistaken and adjust the observation, or do a little of both? There’s another saying, “All models are wrong but some are useful.” So it seems that Socrates was right in that we cannot know with certainty that we know anything with certainty.
But let’s take this a little farther. Does it really matter if we don’t know anything? How much do we really need to know? If we assume evolution has shaped our brains and our senses to optimize our chances of passing on our genes to surviving future generations, then it does not matter if our beliefs are accurate as long as they drive us to behave in ways that produce the evolutionally necessary outcome. For this reason, I don’t worry much about what other people believe. Instead I pay attention to the behaviors that result from people’s beliefs. For the same reason, I don’t worry much about my own occasional lapses into minor cognitive dissonance.
Posted 2021/01/14