Gurmat (Sikhi), a common sense approach to knowledge
Takeaways
- The Way is written into us and writes us
- Real knowledge, certainty, is just common sense or akl
- Knowledge is not justified true belief
People often think that knowledge is central. I do not think it is; it is useful, but not central. What is central is how we live, not what we know.
For a long time it was believed that knowledge was holding a belief that was correct and that you were justified in holding. This is not so. Take the example of a clock that tells the right time even though the battery that powers it is wrong. It accidentally tells the right time because of where the hands were left when the clock powered down. A person would be justified in using the clock even though we know that even one minute later s/he will have the wrong time. These sorts of puzzles were developed by Gettier.
Another difficulty is that there are many things that we cannot prove. For example, I cannot show that I am a person, more than the chemical-biological reactions of an animal. Nor can I show that other people are persons. Indeed, I cannot show that the external world is real and that I am not in a simulation. The inability to prove the existence of the self, other persons and the external world troubles many philosophers but not G.E. Moore. He noted that he could not deny or not act upon his certain knowledge about these things. He also applied this approach to ethics, to being good, rather than bad.
Certainty is about the very framework of our being, knowledge is restricted to operations within the framework but not the framework itself. Guru Nanak noted that the hukam, Way or Will is “likia naal” (Guru Granth Sahib: 1), inscribed in being. Certainty, hukam, and common sense are one.