Knowledge

The only absolute is knowledge.

Everything we think, feel, do, and even faith is based on knowledge. Knowledge can be right or wrong, good or bad, both and neither. It is all based on what we know or think we know. Without knowledge nothing would exist because we have no knowledge of it. Free will or fate, it is all based on the knowledge each of us has. Our opinions are based on the knowledge we have at any given point, often subject to change or modification in the search for more knowledge. We all seek knowledge or we would not be at this forum.

Knowledge is absolute but no one has absolute knowledge.

This opinion is formed from the knowledge I have at this particular moment subject to change should someone with absolute knowledge come forward and prove they have absolute knowledge.

I do agree with you, Wood. And I must add - just to clarify - that this knowledge is not only based on studies and/or books. Empirical knowledge is also knowledge.

Stanze

Stanze wrote:I do agree with you, Wood. And I must add - just to clarify - that this knowledge is not only based on studies and/or books. Empirical knowledge is also knowledge.

Stanze

Knowledge is knowledge. It's absolute. It takes knowledge to gather more knowledge. I would not limit knowledge to a book as valuable as I find them, nor would I limit knowledge to only what I can see, feel or touch. If I do not know something it is only because I have not yet obtained the knowledge to achieve it.

Wow, Wood...very interesting point.

I guess I come at it from a somewhat different angle. I believe that there may or may not be a thing called "absolute knowledge," but I don't believe there's any way for me to encounter or recognize it.

In other words, for me, there might as well be no such thing as absolute knowledge; I can only choose to believe, or to disbelieve, that it exists. Even (perceptually) quantifiable sense data appearing to occur in a cause and effect relationship with other phenomena are only artifacts of our perceptual and cognitive processes. There are times when I believe I have encountered something inexplicable and numinous, an encounter involving "the sixth sense" or some such. Most of the time, though, I spend perceiving things that appear to follow some set of predictably repetitive rules, e.g., if I drop an apple, it will fall. By perceiving some words written in a book, I learn that there's a force called gravity, etc. But how can I ever get outside this "meat envelope" and actually know there's such a thing? Even the most intensely visceral sense data, such as terrible pain, which seem so very real, may simply be an artifact produced by my sensory apparatus. Everything, or nothing, may be an illusion.

Sorry to be a little muddy there, but it's kinda hard to articulate something like that...my poor little mind boggles.

Thanks for bringing that up...it's a great springboard for contemplation! Thanks for putting up with my wordiness, too.

Barb

my belief system is, wisodm is knowledge , knowledge is in doing .

Kaph...

Well said!

I agree completely...in that whole muddle up there I posted earlier I was trying to say much the same thing, but I just couldn't wrap my head around the concepts, much less articulate them. I guess our minds still have cultural imprints of Victorian materialism in them and those maxims put forth by organizations that seek to control a populace by setting forth absolutes. I think we crave absolutes the way babies crave the blanket and the rocking crib. Absolutes are comforting...realizing that if there is an absolute, we can't ever truly know that we've found it is....scary. Unsettling. Yet something remains...there is the set of experiences (perceptual, cognitive, intuitive) that we acquire and process, and from those data we can act "as if" there were an absolute and try our darnedest to approximate it and live the best life we can.

Waxing weird again,

Barb

wood wrote:The only absolute is knowledge.

Everything we think, feel, do, and even faith is based on knowledge. Knowledge can be right or wrong, good or bad, both and neither. It is all based on what we know or think we know. Without knowledge nothing would exist because we have no knowledge of it. Free will or fate, it is all based on the knowledge each of us has. Our opinions are based on the knowledge we have at any given point, often subject to change or modification in the search for more knowledge. We all seek knowledge or we would not be at this forum.

Knowledge is absolute but no one has absolute knowledge. What about persons who have achieved christhood/buddhahood?

This opinion is formed from the knowledge I have at this particular moment subject to change should someone with absolute knowledge come forward and prove they have absolute knowledge.

Hi Wood,

I was going through some of the posts I missed and saw this one. I think it's an interesting discussion and hope am not too late to join in.

On the one hand I think that there is what you may call absolute knowledge- or universal truths: they do not change, no matter the individual, culture or place in time.

On the other hand within the context of this discussion how can knowledge be absolute? Within this context I dunno they sound sort of contradictory to me. When I think of the word absolute, I think about unconditional, perfection, no restrictions-independent of anything....but then you're saying that within certain constraints knowledge is absolute. Isn't that restricting something that shouldn't be restricted in the first place?

I am like Kaph and Barb, and even you alluded to it- knowledge is based on one's experiences- inner and outer: physical and feeling/emotional. As such, then, knowledge is more relational, so to speak, rather than absolute.

I dunno these were just some thoughts that came to me as I read the post.
Gem