/lit/ - Literature

The thing in itself, which because it being what it really is is logically prior to our conceptualization of it can also not be called an unknowable chaos since this would be a subreptive application of the categories of thought to that which we want to know as it is prior to that application. Consequently, it is also not certain whether there IS OR IS NOT a sun, heat, rock, etc., which exists externally. And according to Kant it will remain uncertain for the foreseeable future because we do not know at this point in history have the mental capacity to determine whether our subjective categories of thought have an exactly corresponding objective correlate which would allow us to legitimately apply our categories of thought to it since the thing in itself would then also be a subject (an ego, an I, soul, mind) in a larger sense with same categories of thought as ours: a microcosm to microcosm relation, more simply, as above, so below. This being the case, ironically, the best way to understanding objective reality would to understanding our own selves, the famous injunction: Know Thyself.