Minimum Security Comic Strip, October 15, 2012 on GoComics.com

Knowledge Through Practice
by admin on October 15, 2012 at 12:01 am Proletarian Theory is a Revolutionary Social Force

Descriptions of categories of ideas, like any abstractions, can’t capture the infinite complexity of reality. They are useful only insofar as they describe aspects of reality successfully enough to aid us in our understanding of it.

A Few Ultra-brief Definitions:

Epistemology: the theory of knowledge.

Science: the systematic organization of knowledge.

Objective reality: What actually exists in the world, no matter what we think about it (though reality does include our thoughts).

Subjectivity: Sentience (feeling) + consciousness (awareness).

Subjective thoughts: Our interpretation of objective reality.

Idea: A subjective construct, which can correspond relatively closely to reality or be insanely distant from it.

Idealism: The belief that the world is a projection of our mental activity, that the nature of reality is determined by ideas.

Materialism: The belief that reality consists of matter in motion.

Animism: The belief that the world is alive and comprised of interconnected subjectivities.

Postmodernism: The belief that each individual subjectivity creates its own world. If you’ve ever heard anyone say, “Everyone’s point of view is equally valid,” this is a postmodernist denial of the existence of objective reality. It disarms us by making judgment impossible. In fact, everyone’s point of view is not equally valid — some are closer to reality than others, and some correspond to hostile class interests.

Mysticism: The belief in a reality that is beyond the ordinary perception of sentient beings.