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Philosophy of the unknown?

TiredThinker February 06, 2022 at 15:45 6450 views 22 comments
Isn't there a branch of philosophy concerned with ignorance and what we don't actually know? Epistemology covers knowledge, but what covers the stuff we tend to just assume we know, but in fact don't?

Comments (22)

god must be atheist February 06, 2022 at 15:47 #652078
Oh, yes. There are entire libraries filled with books on the philosophy of the unknown. We just haven't located those libraries yet.
god must be atheist February 06, 2022 at 15:50 #652080
there are libraries full of books on reincarnation, Buddhism, Judaism, Sadism, Christianity, Voodoo, The Illiterati, Hubbardism, Scientology, MORALS AND ETHICS!!!!, What Pleases God, How you must worship god, etc. etc.

I don't know what you are griping about.
Jack Cummins February 06, 2022 at 15:54 #652082
Reply to TiredThinker
I am wondering if you are thinking of the paranormal, which is often shelved next to philosophy in libraries. Of course, there is parapsychology as a branch within psychology. But, the unknown is often is at the edges in between the disciplines as the unknown variable which is hard to classify and put into a box.

Deleted User February 06, 2022 at 18:22 #652124
Quoting TiredThinker
a branch of philosophy concerned with ignorance and what we don't actually know? Epistemology covers knowledge, but what covers the stuff we tend to just assume we know, but in fact don't?
3h


You might have a look at Sextus Empiricus and the ancient skeptics, if you haven't yet. Their work is free online somewhere, I'm sure.
Joshs February 06, 2022 at 20:25 #652153
Reply to TiredThinker You could try Graham Harman’s Object Oriented Ontology(ooo).
https://youtu.be/cR1A4ILPmjE
Heracloitus February 06, 2022 at 20:31 #652155
Look into advaita vedanta.
180 Proof February 06, 2022 at 23:26 #652222
Quoting TiredThinker
Epistemology covers knowledge, but what covers the stuff we tend to just assume we know, but in fact don't?

Dialectics or (Pyrrhonian) skepticism targets 'illusions of knowledge' (i.e. believing we know what we don't know or cannot be known) – one's ignorance of one's own ignorance. Re: Socrates (early dialogues), Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus ... Montaigne, Hume, Peirce-Dewey, Witty, S. Haack, N.N.Taleb, G. Gigerenzer, D. Kahneman ...
jgill February 07, 2022 at 00:01 #652235
I rather like the idea of philosophy of a topic one is unaware of. So what would be step one?
TiredThinker February 07, 2022 at 06:39 #652325
Reply to Jack Cummins

I mean ignorance. Where we assume too much about what we know. I could of swore I saw a philosopher on TV mentioning a discipline about the limitations of what we know.
180 Proof February 07, 2022 at 09:13 #652338
Jack Cummins February 07, 2022 at 09:57 #652343
Reply to 180 Proof
At first, when I saw your word agnotology I thought that you had made it up. But, I pressed on the word and saw that exist. So, I have learned something new.
Agent Smith February 07, 2022 at 09:59 #652344
Reply to 180 Proof :up:

There's also agnoiology.



[quote=Cypher]I don't wanna remember nothing, nothing! You understand?[/quote]

Agent Smith February 07, 2022 at 10:10 #652346
Quoting 180 Proof
Dialectics or (Pyrrhonian) skepticism target 'illusions of knowledge' (i.e. believing we know what we don't know or cannot be known) – one's ignorance of one's own ignorance. Re: Socrates (early dialogues), Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus ... Montaigne, Hume, Peirce-Dewey, Witty, S. Haack, N.N.Taleb, G. Gigerenzer, D. Kahneman ...


You da man! :clap:
Agent Smith February 07, 2022 at 10:25 #652351
JTB definition of knowledge:

S knows P iff

1. S believes P
2. P is true
3. P is justified

There's no knowledge or ignorance reigns supreme if

1. S doesn't exist (life)

or/and

2. Propositions can't be formed (language)

or/and

3. Justification is inadequate/impossible/flawed (logic)


180 Proof February 07, 2022 at 10:38 #652356
Quoting Agent Smith
I don't wanna remember nothing, nothing! You understand? β€” Cypher

Yeah, we (akratic) higher primates are just (sleepwalking junkie) slaves to that damned – damning – mesolimbic dopamine pathway. :sweat:

Reply to Jack Cummins :cool:
Ciceronianus February 07, 2022 at 16:50 #652408
Quoting TiredThinker
Isn't there a branch of philosophy concerned with ignorance and what we don't actually know?


There are enough philosophers who pontificate regarding Nothing to make up a school if not a branch. Will that do? Let's call it "Noughtism" or "Nought-ism" the study of that which isn't (I don't think "nihilism" works). We're forever ignorant of what is not.
Agent Smith February 07, 2022 at 18:19 #652427
Quoting 180 Proof
Yeah, we (akratic) higher primates are just (sleepwalking junkie) slaves to that damned – damning – mesolimbic dopamine pathway. :sweat:


:lol:
TiredThinker February 07, 2022 at 20:19 #652447
Reply to 180 Proof

I don't think so. Not something designed to deceive.
Gnomon February 08, 2022 at 00:02 #652498
Quoting TiredThinker
Isn't there a branch of philosophy concerned with ignorance and what we don't actually know? Epistemology covers knowledge, but what covers the stuff we tend to just assume we know, but in fact don't?

I don't know. It's a mystery to me. :smile:

Ignorance is the not knowing that opens us up to philosophical wonder, to scientific discovery, to human wisdom."
https://ignorance.medicine.arizona.edu/about-us/what-ignorance

β€œThe most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
? Albert Einstein, The World As I See It

Typically, mystery does not receive much attention in philosophy. Although Heidegger and other key philosophers have made a place for mystery in philosophy, ...
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739134344/Mystery-in-Philosophy-An-Invocation-of-Pseudo-Dionysius
Agent Smith February 16, 2022 at 12:51 #655613
Unknowns (kind courtesy of Joesph Luft, Harrington Ingham, Donald Rumsfeld, & Meno)

1. Known unknowns (do aliens exist?)
2. Unknown knowns (Forgotten knowledge. What was the color of Aristotle's hair?)
3. Unknown unknowns ( :zip: )

Each category of unknowns might deserve separate treatment (definition refinement, methodological differences, and so on)

Re: Meno's paradox
jgill February 17, 2022 at 05:24 #655809
Quoting Agent Smith
3. Unknown unknowns ( :zip: )

Each category of unknowns might deserve separate treatment


I find 3. particularly appealing. What might be the first step along this path?
Agent Smith February 17, 2022 at 06:01 #655818
Quoting jgill
I find 3. particularly appealing. What might be the first step along this path?


I haven't the foggiest.