Being Influenced

I posted this in the form of a Q&A on my primary blog and thought it might be appropriate to incorporate it here because it relates to epistemology.

From conception, our bodies develop from the physical contributions of our parents (whom we do not choose). At birth, we are branded with a family name (which we do not choose). As we grow, our parents teach us what they know…the best way to walk, the best way to talk, the best way to eat, etc…and before the age of two, we are pretty much just soaking it all in (without much input). By the time we can string together the right words in the right order to say, "I want to make my own decision," we are already chock full of inheritance and borrowing most every idea that we have from some combination of contributions from a multitude of sources.

While we live in a world of "self-made" successful people and "self-taught" guitar players and other self-this and self-thats, surely we can maintain an epistemology as we grow older and more mature that acknowledges there is really no such thing as "true individualism". We should refrain from buying into the notion that we really don't need other people; we should remember to continue viewing ourselves as students in need of teachers. As so many toddlers tend to say, "Me do it self." But as we are tempted to close our eyes and ball up our fists and try really hard to actually believe that mankind is more about individuality than a learned communal way of life, we should remember that we are simply wasting our time. That belief is wrong and pursuing it as an attractive option is just plain silly.

We may no longer live in a culture which relies primarily on audible story telling to transfer knowledge from one person to another, but all of our technological advances cannot change the basic, natural order of creation. Behind every website is the designer who is thoughtfully selecting images and words to transfer his "knowledge" to the web-surfer. Behind every email address is a human correspondent (or computer program designed by a human correspondent) who would have written letters by hand on paper just a few years ago. Every handy book on our shelves that empowers us to "teach ourselves" was actually written by a fellow man who had some ideas, facts, and opinions to share. Precious little of anything that we learn comes from sources which could not be described as "others telling us."

By definition, if we are buying, someone has to be selling. If we are building, we need materials. If we are producing building materials, we still have to acquire raw materials through some means. We are not able to create something from nothing.

If what I am saying is true, then we need to remember to say "balderdash" to those who would have us to believe that we can cast off all that we have learned and rely on our own intelligence. Such sentiments simply do not pass the test of common sense.

So what? What is the practical implication of stating that a logical epistemology includes someone teaching and someone learning.Most importantly, we need to be extraordinarily careful about who we choose as our primary teachers. We are generally inclined to agree with and therefore believe our primary teachers by default, so we must be deliberate in selecting them. We naturally want to trust our teachers and so we need trustworthy teachers.

So we keep this in mind as we choose what books to read, what newspapers, websites, and blogs to absorb, etc. We remember this as we decide who to turn to for advice.

What we do not do, regardless of our general perspectives on knowledge, religion, etc. is take in and adopt every wind that blows near us in willy nilly fashion.