The gift we all share, empiricism and rationalism (#1033)

Epistemology is the who, what, when, where, and why of knowledge. This comprehensive structured, albeit as far as we are able to define, analysis helps us to understand our own world and our own natures. The study of knowledge for me has boiled down to two, empiricism: objective observation; and rationalism: deductive/inductive reasoning. There are two more "schools of thought", idealism: reality as a mental construction; and historicism: which focuses on traditions and time periods. I find these last two are less significant and I will leave them out of this dialogue. I have given very generalized definitions of all four "views" of epistemology as a way to shorten the definitions and allow me more time to make my point. My main function here on Earth as a multi-sensoried being is to gather information and put the information to an analysis in order to create logical knowledge. Both empiricism and rationalism are major components in the equation I assimilate. Naturally I also consider the idealism of and historicism values but rarely do they impact the final conclusion at which I arrive. My senses and my logical reasoning are the tools I use to sustain and grow my knowledge base. If this is how I accomplish my learning abilities then it is also reasonable to assume all the rest of us are as able to do so as well. I like the theme of keeping things simple in how I approach processes for utilization. By being my own laboratory and science lab, I am able to utilize myself for information gathering and objective analysis. My body supplies the senses needed to draw information towards me and my logical mind allows me to analyze, reason and then conclude. What I am trying to relate here is that we, individually, are the best source for evaluating and processing information based upon our own abilities to understand those things that are here in reality with us. We are all that unique!