Ardavan Taheri/Radio Koocheh
Translated from Persian by Avideh Motmaen-Far
”The journey began when I looked away from ”here and now”; I mean that I looked into the past that has been named ”history”. One of Our Professors from Italy used to say that ”the past is a strange land”. And in fact when we look into the past, many human concepts- even fundamental- are dramatically different from what are commonly accepted today, and neither the understanding of concepts will be the same in the future.”
With the transition of time, everything is changing; even the concept of reality has changed or to put it in a better way, has been expanded. Reality, due to the diversity of human cognitive tools, such as five senses, is a very complex topic in philosophy and Epistemology even if it has more objective aspects that any other concepts.
Generally speaking we can say that the part of the reality that humans are able to perceive, analyze and explain is the truth.
If you agree with a general definition, we can conclude that quantity and quality of human understanding of truth has changed because the time changes our perceptions and analyzes capabilities. I mean that what man called reality two thousand years ago, was only a part of the reality that man knows today. So we can conclude that even the human perception of the truth is more than in the past.
Probably the only exception in this area can be considered by the difference between the intuitive science and the knowledge acquisition. Intuitive science is the pure awareness, beyond the boundaries of time and space. But who shares this unseen treasury, only God knows.
It is worthy to remember one of the immortal words of ”Socrates” when he said: ”He knows that he doesn’t know.” The prominent professor of philosophy and logic, Doctor ” Gholam Hossein Ebrahimi Dinani ” in the volume II of his book entitled ”General rules of philosophy in Islamic philosophy” he interprets the Socrates’s quotation:
”In this sentence we see clearly that ignorance becomes evident in the light of knowledge. That means that ignorance means ignorance when it is known. In a way that if the ignorance is not known, we can never recognize it. In another words, of unbeknownst ignorance, which is ”Combined Ignorance”, nothing can be said. A western contemporary philosopher on a protest speech against ”Socrates” has said: ” If Socrates knew that he didn’t know, I do not even know that.
quantity and quality of human understanding of truth has changed because the time changes our perceptions and analyze capabilities.
” But this philosopher has neglected the fact that there is no protest in his saying to what ”Socrates” had said, because in what he said, no new element exists in addition to the words of ”Socrates”. And this is because when he says that he does not know, and does not know that he does not know, in reality he knows that he does not know. If he ignored his ignorance, how could have he claimed that he did not know it?”[1]
Thank God that with this interpretation of the Professor- to whom I wish long and prosperous life- we know a little; I mean we know that we do not know.
[1] – Doctor Gholam Hossein Ebrahimi Dinani, General rules of philosophy in Islamic philosophy, Institute of human science and cultural studies, Tehran, Third edition, 2001, page 537.
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