[This is part of a series. Find part 1 here.]

You might think that you are alright with the realization that most of what we know is through other people. But knowing things through experience is actually worse than that. You see, we already know that those we depend on so much are not reliable.

Magicians and illusionist build their entire trades on the fact that your senses are not reliable. They can make you miss things that are done right in front of your eyes and make you see things that are not there.

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But neither does anyone else.

It can be surprising or disconcerting to unravel how much we actually “know” in the way we usually think we are using that word. We usually talk about “knowing” in a sense of certainty. I do not have to ever question it, because I know it. It’s settled. Debate over.

But the reality is that almost nothing falls into that category. We believe things. We operate as if certain things were true. But we don’t know them in the sense of absolute certainty.

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