Quiapon, Aureen Mae A.

Quiapon Philo 1

2019-05465 October 12, 2020

Do You Truly Know What You Think You Know?

It is hard to imagine a world outside what we believe or perceive it to be. In an attempt

to help us understand what even the most mundane things are, we attach meanings to a
variety of objects—from small ones like cars to bigger, more meaningful ones like our lives
as human beings. In the chaos or harmony that this may bring, is there really a way for us to
verify what we think we know and how we know them to be?

“A Beautiful Mind” is an American biographical drama, directed by Ron Howard, that

tells the story of John Forbes Nash Jr., a Nobel Laureate for his work with game theory. In
this movie, we see how the same mind that has contributed great service to humanity,
especially in the academe, is the same one that betrayed him with frightening delusions.

One of the scenes that struck me most, despite it happening ahead of all the heavier
ones, would be John’s proposal to his soon-to-be-wife, Alicia. In here she asks him, “How do
you know for sure?” and he responded with a simple “I don’t know. I just believe it.” While
many of you may think that this is cliché and cheesy, if taken in a broader more general
context, it is true. The way I see it, many of us understand and know concepts based on what
we believe in. Case in point, the way we believe and see love is subjective and highly
dependent on our individual beliefs and expectations of what it is or what it may be
regardless of how other people define it. To add, I see that a person also knows what he or
she knows when logic and rationality is applied together with the experiences he or she has.
In most cases, or at least ideally, we use both of those abilities before we begin to believe in
something we experience or encounter. Knowledge then, is made up of things that we believe
in, our experiences, and how we absorb it as individuals.

While many philosophers like Descartes, Kant, and Locke have tried to describe our
existence and how we know what is, this is still up for debate. In understanding how we
know what we know, we must first know how the world affects our beliefs, our experiences,
and generally how we think.

Sources:
Ebert, R. (2001, December 21). A Beautiful Mind movie review (2001): Roger Ebert. Retrieved October 09, 2020, from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-beautiful-mind-2001
Epistemology: How Do I Know? (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2020, from https://www.closertotruth.com/episodes/epistemology-how-do-i-know
Howard, R. (Director). (2001). A Beautiful Mind [Video file]. United States of America: Imagine Entertainment.