I'd Like to "See It"
Throughout the sixth chapter of the book Longing to Know, which I am currently reading, the metaphor of an image coming into focus as it is moved away from the face is used to explain the process of getting to know God. Valid. It seems as valid as it might for any other field of study: math, science, history. Things click into place best at twenty thousand feet.
But isn't it true that in philosophy, in theology, in the realm of metaphysics, it is entirely likely that the picture we are trying to focus on may actually look like this, or this, or this? Awesome, we can pick out colors. We know that there is something concrete to what we are seeing. But the images might be computer generated; in fact, mainstream Christianity teaches that there is indisputably only one image we could possibly look at that is in focus. How do we know, before the picture has come into focus, if we are attempting to focus on an inherently blurry picture?
She defines epistemology as "the human's skilled coping with the world through achieving a coherence, an integrated pattern, a making sense of things, that opens the world to us." Firstly, what is skill? Ah, such a relative term. What does it mean to cope? What exactly are we coping with? ("The world" is pretty general.) What is achievement, in a world marred by unfinished and imperfectly-finished tasks? What is coherence? How are we to make sense of the world when we don't know which authorities to trust or which parts of the world to observe in order to come to an accurate understanding, a true cohesion?
But isn't it true that in philosophy, in theology, in the realm of metaphysics, it is entirely likely that the picture we are trying to focus on may actually look like this, or this, or this? Awesome, we can pick out colors. We know that there is something concrete to what we are seeing. But the images might be computer generated; in fact, mainstream Christianity teaches that there is indisputably only one image we could possibly look at that is in focus. How do we know, before the picture has come into focus, if we are attempting to focus on an inherently blurry picture?
She defines epistemology as "the human's skilled coping with the world through achieving a coherence, an integrated pattern, a making sense of things, that opens the world to us." Firstly, what is skill? Ah, such a relative term. What does it mean to cope? What exactly are we coping with? ("The world" is pretty general.) What is achievement, in a world marred by unfinished and imperfectly-finished tasks? What is coherence? How are we to make sense of the world when we don't know which authorities to trust or which parts of the world to observe in order to come to an accurate understanding, a true cohesion?
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