There are different points of view in philosophy when it comes to our ability of Erkenntnis. The so called Theorie of Knowledge or Epistemology investigates what there is to observe and to what extend we are able to recognize it. Is there a reality? Can we know ourselves? Different approaches to this question have been chosen and different theories have resulted. A lot of activity in this area was triggered by the redefinition of the common understanding of the world with the rise of modern physical science. Suddenly our home was a globe, the universe gigantic and ancient, and the human an advanced animal. That provokes the question if these new findings are correct and what else can be found.
Perception and reality are closely tied together. Perception is our gate to the world. It creates the connection to the outside world, to the cosmos. The most familiar access to reality at this time are our sensory organs for physical input. We see, hear, smell, taste and touch. These five senses enable us to pursue science as we have done in the past couple of centuries. They make the effect of the laws of nature visible for us. They make the investigation of the universe on a material level possible. Extraordinary and important progress has been accomplished in this field.
Beyond that we more senses which have received little attention in recent time. We have always used our mental capabilities when investigating the material world, but we have not given much attention to how they work. We have neglected the understanding of our mind. That is not entirely unintentional, because the idea was to rediscover the world from the perspective of our five physical senses. The path from perception to interpretation and finally the discovery of a law of nature goes far beyond our five senses. For that we need our thinking and all abilities connected to it.
When there are major changes in how society understands and describes the world, an increased interest in epistemology is understandable. If we build a new worldview based on our physical senses, then we want to know what those senses deliver and how this input is used by our thinking to build a worldview.
It pays off to give this question the attention it deserves. The physical senses do not deliver anything that could directly be described with words. It is our thinking that adds concepts to the sensory input, and it does this usually very quickly. The concepts are always more or less precise and more or less matching to the perception. That is mostly no problem, because the shapes appearing in front of our senses can usually be connected to well-known ideas like a tree, a cloud or a house. An exact description of the perception is no longer necessary in that case. Our memories also make use of concepts. It is easy to remember that we saw a tree. If we want to memorize the tree as it appeared in front of our eyes, with all the details of its branches, it takes much more attention and focus. When we cannot find a concept, then we are dependent on memorizing as many details as possible.
It can happen that a worldview is build wich claims to have no connection to reality. Today this is not a very common phenomenon, but it is still worth mentioning here. An example for this is the skepticism. In its most extreme form, this point of view is does not recognize the experience gained from perception as a mental image of reality, but claims experience to be a product of thinking unrelated to perception. The laws of thinking are usually not observed sufficiently by those skeptics. Thinking is important for experience. And thinking reacts to perception. When observing our sensory impressions closely it becomes noticeable that they cannot be explained with thinking alone, but must be caused by an existing reality and must have a connection to it. This Erkenntnis can be achieved by every human. However, our beliefs can stand in our own way here.
Thinking goes beyond the perception of our physical senses. That perception gives us only one part of reality. The other part is added with our thinking. Our thinking follows rules when doing this. For example, we can choose the content of our thoughts when we direct our attention. But we cannot change the way our thinking works, just as we cannot change how the laws of nature work. But we can and should observe how we think, gain knowledge of the laws of thinking. If we do not know those laws, we are not free. It can then happen that we block our way with an idea like skepticism.
Comprehending reality does not just mean to recognize the laws of nature, but also the laws of thinking. Only with this foundation can we accomplish certainty, that the worldview we build with help of our sensory organs and our thinking corresponds to reality. Only then we comprehend reality with the required depth.