Essay on Question: How do we know what we know?

How do we know?

We accept certain events from history as "true." True events are supported by evidence, archeological, ephemeral and as told by human beings. Events told by human beings are weighed and considered for reliability. Primary, secondary and tertiary sources where a primary source is considered the most reliable. Some human who witnessed the events.

Thus history emphasizes empirical evidence, that humans can see, feel, taste and record in some fashion. Senses, touch, taste, sight and hearing are the foundation of evidence as are human artifacts which recreate the memory of those experiences.

Into this arena ruled by human senses we introduce the photograph. On the basic level the photograph reproduces the sense of sight. It relies on the physics of light and the optical properties of the lens and they eye. Photographers can capture sight and transport an experiential moment across space and time.

Thus we trust that the flag was raised on Iwo Jima. We have a picture, which is also a LIE of omission because the famous flag raising does not acknowledge that it was a recreation. An image of an image as Plato would assert. Yet it is not the actual image that confirms and reconfirms the truth of this knowledge it is memory. Memory of human beings, the soldiers who fought on Iwo Jima from America and Japan, the memories of movie goers who watched the flag being raised in dark theaters, mothers, brothers, friends who worried about the chance and reality of death.

While physical evidence exists to PROVE events, such as photos of a foundation of a roman villa in a contemporary Spanish field, which can only be seen from the air. What we KNOW is ultimately an exercise in a shared human community who tell the story Iwo Jima.

Consequently we know what we know only as a human community. I know about WWII because my father was a soldier who kept Bill Mauldin's memoire on his book shelf. Bill Mauldin's cartoons, which are included in the slide show are also part of my knowledge of WWII.