Why have philosophers argued about the foundations of knowledge for thousands of years, and why do we care about their arguments? Here is an excerpt on the philosophy of Jacobi, a religious existentialist from the time of the German enlightenment:
"It is just a fact, he argues, that most of our common sense beliefs cannot be demonstrated. Take the belief in the existence of the external world. It cannot be demonstrated since, from all the evidence of our senses, we cannot infer that objects continue to exist when we do not perceive them. For similar reasons, we cannot prove our belief in the existence of other minds or in the reliability of induction. If, then, we are not to lapse into skepticism, rejecting all beliefs that cannot be demonstrated, we have to restrict the demand for rational justification. We have to recognize that the sphere of faith is much wider than we at first thought. It encompasses all beliefs that are not capable of strict demonstration, and that includes not only our moral and religious beliefs, but also the most basic beliefs of common sense." (The Fate of Reason: German Philosophy from Kant to Fichte, F. Beiser, p90)
Without the axioms (existence, identity, consciousness, causality, mental focus, validitiy of the senses), we cannot establish truth, and are left with, as some would say 'faith', or, as faith systems play out and devolve into that which they really are, emotion..we are left with only relativism:
“It is not the immorality of relativism that I find appalling. What is astounding and degrading is the dogmatism with which we accept such relativism, and our easy going lack of concern about what that means for our lives. I have tried to provide an archeology of our souls as they are. We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part. …This is our educational crisis and our opportunity. Western rationalism has culminated in a rejection of reason. Is this result necessary?”
(The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom, p238)
which is where we find ourselves today, no rule of law, no irrevocable individual rights, ..just competing interest groups grabbing what they can and manipulating the structures of govt to bring the force of govt against the very individuals which, in a rational society, it would be serving to protect.
rp
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