How do we know things? (Epistemology)?

Question:Can/do we receive knowledge through anything other than our senses?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Can/do we receive knowledge through anything other than our senses?

Yes, we receive knowledge through the Intuitive and Sub-Conscious Mind from Universal Mind. Some people refer to it as a hunch, gut feeling! It all means the same thing! We receive knowledge by going within ourselves in Meditation. If you ask, you receive! The Human Race has not fully understood exactly what we are and how we operate, if they did, this would be a totally different place! Mind is the most valuable tool we have!

no. we can derive direct knowledge through our senses. knowledge can also be derived from secondary sources- books, hearsay, internet. however even the indirect knowledge is gained through our senses.

it is all senses. Knowledge comes through senses, but is is processed in our brains and senses, so it is not easy to "know for sure ".
Combinations of what enterd through the senses can be made inside your head. That is an other kind of knowledge. Comprehension etc.

how do you know?
to know is to limit your scope by judgement!
and the birth of jealousy whose name is cain!

You know because you are !
We know directly through our five senses...
We know also through our instinctive, innate unconscious mind- the id, the ego, and the superego !

of-course we can.. speaking of epistemology, we acquire knowledge through reasoning.. it is said that reason is the source of knowledge or justification as what rationalist believe..

This question is to big of an issues to handle properly in this venue as we have to cover the following plus other areas-

Senses - Perception - Axioms - Concepts - Definitions - Deduction - Unit/Unit Economy - Conceptual Common Denominator

I suggest you get this book, Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology - Ayn Rand

yes, direct brain stimuli, you can produce sensory perception with electrode implants that bypass the sensory nerves, in effect you can feel without your finger but your brain does not know the difference.
Freaky eh, I mean what does that say about our senses or knowledge in general right.

Yes but it requires that we focus and limit sensory input to cut down on the nonsense noise that keeps us from noticing the truth.

Love and blessings Don

Yes, we can reason. Reasoning can generate new knowledge.

I do not ususally answer questions with so many answers that are so close to being correct. But every correct answer has at least one flaw that made for a contradiction.

So here goes mine: [a quote or two]

"The basic metaphysical issue that lies at the root of any system of philosophy [is] the primacy of existence or the primacy of consciousness."

Rationalists and Empiricists believe neither wholly, nor reject them wholly. But we must reject the Primacy of Consciousness, nevertheless.

"The Primacy of existence (of reality) is the axiom that existence exists, i.e.,
> that the universe exists independent of consciousness (of any consciousness),<
that things are what they are, that they possess a specific nature, an identity.
The epistemological corollary is the axiom that consciousness is the faculty of perceiving that which exists—and that man gains knowledge of reality by looking outward." [1]

We do look outward. That is Empiricism, yet Empiricism rejects a lot of the elements of Rationalism. The rejectible part says we cannot know for certain what is true of the senses; we must somehow find a way to make the chaos understandable and thereby "rationalize" our way to understanding the cosmos.

What Empiricism should not reject is that our mentality of rationally finding "universals" is the means by which we use our subjective minds to understand objective reality.

WE CAN receive knowledge from our subjective consciousness. It is that faculty of consciousness that takes our perceptions and makes concepts of them. This is a psycho-epistemological process.

"Psycho-epistemology is the study of man's cognitive processes from the aspect of the interaction between the conscious mind and the automatic functions of the subconscious."

What happens in this process? We get light bulbs coming on over our heads, or we get slapped like someone who should have had a V-8--slapped by our own sudden recognition of "something."

It is called "intuition," but do not be fooled. This is not some idea that comes flying through the ether, or injected into your brain by a mystic spirit. It is the two halves of your mind, the subconsciousness and the consciousness, in direct connection with each other.

What do you think Dr. House has at the end of each episode? It's epistemological, coming from his education and his experience.

"Intuition: (Lat. intuere, to look at) The direct and immediate apprehension by a knowing subject of itself, of its conscious states, of other minds, of an external world, of universals, of values or of rational truths." [2]

Not just a random light bulb--a direct and immediate light bulb, full of values and rational truths and of knowledge of what is other peoples minds as found through their words and their actions--in other words, a bulb lit by your education, your intelligence, and your experiences.

Empiricism and Rationalism are each approximately half right/half wrong. Their correct halves need to come together to make Reason once again the light bulb of Enlightenment.

And I don't mean "enlightenment."