KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN FOR WHAT WE KNOW

There are two kinds of being: the active being of knowing and the passive being of being known. The human condition, as homo sapiens, is wrapped up in them both. We are what we know and we are also what we are known to be. This is philosophically helpful because from it we can make a measure of human authenticity.

It is not what we have but what we know that is important if we are going to feel authentic fulfilment. It is not what we are known to have but what we are known to know that should be important in a human, Sapiens society.

Of course this is not the case in human praxis. Authenticity is sadly lacking in our nihilistic, consumerist civilisations. Our disassociation with authenticity stems primarily from our illusion of the importance of the “have” and the “have not” against the “know” and “know not”. It could be said that real human progress will not take off until this illusion is rectified. Progress through knowledge rather than through acquisitions.

Of the great “verbs” that describe the drives that create our identity, and through identity our sense of Being, to do, to have and to know, only the latter is truly a Sapiens’ characteristic, being itself rooted in the Cartesian cogito ergo sum. But knowing implies more than the simple thought process. It requires self-consciousness and language.

Knowing is not just thinking. It is a kind of thinking. The kind of thinking that can come to conclusions – that can guard memories and recall things.

Only through knowing can we be creative. Only through knowing can humanity have its greatest hallmarks – art and technology.