Knowing, World View, Epoché

Just three thoughts about life I’ve been realizing the past few days, especially when I had some time to sit down and think during the trip to the mountains

1. The only thing we can know for sure is the fact that we know nothing. (But that’s a paradox because if we know nothing for sure, then how do we know that we know nothing?)

2. For the most part, people in Western societies (myself included) are programmed to think in a linear fashion, of everything having a starting point and an ending point. That’s one way to view the world. Every beginning is actually an ending, and every ending is a beginning. So beginnings and endings are the same thing. So there’s no such thing as either. With a gradient circular view of life, there are no beginnings and endings. There’s just a continuum. Everything has always been there. With this type of view, it makes it easier to consider that maybe, just maybe, the universe had no beginning. It’s always been here and always will be here.

3. Epoché. Hmm, it’s hot and I’m about to suffocate in this lab. I think I’ll save this one for next time. Until then, feast your minds on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch%C3%A9 . Shortly before I left for Spain, my brother, cousins and I were watching a video of our Grandfather give an entire lecture on this concept (he’s a Professor).

5 Comments

  1. Hola Michelle, hombre!! J/K!! I read your blog entry AND (gasp) I saw your pics!! So that is what you look like huh? You in the black shirt and the blue sweater? I mean, after all these years, I can´t believe I saw you!! It´s always weird when you meet someone online and then see them for the first time after so many years!! I´ll have to send you a picture of ME sometime, as soon as i can get the money for a freaking digital camera.

    I´ve rambled on way too long, sorry! About your post…I think it´s interesting, the whole circle view of life, like you were saying. Sounds like what we were talking about on OuterSpat a few weeks ago, about the begining of the universe. I know some cultures teach that view (the circle one), but it still doesn´t explain where the whole thing came from in the first place. Like, if there are no beginings and no endings, that still doesn´t explain where and how things came to BE that way. I guess what I´m trying to say is, where did the gradient circle come from? At some point, something did have to come from nothing, impossible as it seems!

  2. Yes, that’s me. I know, I know, you can say it – I look like crap. Definately not the photogenic type. Ha ha.

    What I’m trying to do is figure out the whole meaning of existence before I die. Since the begining of time is this big paradox, I’m trying to think of it in a different perspective. What you’re TAUGHT is to believe that everything has a begining and an ending. But the question I’m asking is that what if everything really DOESN’T have a clear starting point? What if everything has always been here? The reason that idea is hard to imagine is because of a certain mentality (beginings/endings) that has been ingrained in your brain since the moment you were born.

  3. But that still doesn´t explain how things came to be…I know what you´re saying, but it still doesn´t make sense to me that everything has always been here. You would have to say that you have always been here if that was the case, right?

  4. Oh and by the way…you don´t look like crap! LOL!! I think you´re pretty!!!

  5. Well, thanks, Emma! 🙂

    But that still doesn´t explain how things came to be…I know what you´re saying, but it still doesn´t make sense to me that everything has always been here. You would have to say that you have always been here if that was the case, right?

    But what I’m SAYING is that everything might not have had a begining. That goes back to the other point I made in this entry…that every begining is an ending and every ending is a begining. If that’s the case, then wouldn’t the “beginings” and “endings” cancel each other out so that there’s no real starting or ending point? Sure, each person hasn’t “always” existed, but from what framework? Who’s to say that your being born is more a begining and not an ending?

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