10.13.09 CAN TRUTH BE KNOWN?

the field of philosophy that deals with how we know is called epistemology. it is enough for our case to give evidence for the fact that we do know reality; it is not necessary at this point to fully explain how this occurs...the evidence below is not an answer to the ? how do we know? but rather, do we know?

first principles of knowledge
aristotle said that 'demonstration must be based on premises prior to and better known than the conclusion'.. aquinas..'anything whence something proceeds in any way we call a principle..a first principle does not signify priority in time, but origin'..james b. sullivan.. 'the most general judgements conceivable and the most evident, which presuppose no others in the same order for their proof, and are implicit in every judgement'...geisler..'the ultimate starting point from which all conclusions may be drawn in a given area of knowledge or reality. first principles are necessary constituents of all knowledge, but they do not supply any content of knowledge. there are as many of them as there are orders of knowledge and reality'..l.m. regis..'a first principle is..a first among firsts..first principles must therefore be understood to mean a group of judgements by which the intellect observes the existence of necessary bonds between several primary concepts, bonds that oblige it to identify them in affirmation or to separate them by negation'..they are self-evident and need no proof. they show themselves to be true...aquinas..'perfect knowledge requires certitude, and this is why we cannot be said to know unless we know what cannot be otherwise'..aristotle and aquinas make two assumptions..1. 'there exists a reality that is independent of the human mind, to which the mind can either conform or fail to conform. in other words, what we think does not create or in any way affect what we are thinking about. it is what it is, whether we think about it or not and regardless of what we think about it. 2. that this independent reality is completely determinate..(principle of contradiction)..nothing can both be and not be at the same time. anything which does exist cannot both have and not have a certain attribute at one and the same time'..

first principles- each is true in the area of *being (ontology) and applies to the area of #knowledge (epistemology)
1 IDENTITY (B IS B) - *a thing must be identical to itself. if it were not, then it would not be itself and #being is intelligible. if it were not we could not conceive of anything.
2 NONCONTRADICTION (B IS NOT NON-B) - *being cannot be nonbeing, for they are direct opposites..and opposites cannot be the same and #there are at least twways to express this principle: 1 it is impossible that contradictory statements be simultaneously true; 2 if one
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