History of Knowledge

First Plato and Aristotle — Ideas are Real. They are the Reality.

Second Neitzche, Kierkegard, Heidegger — Ideas are Just Power in Disguise — If you have power you can make your ideas by puffery realer than the next guy can make his ideas. And God — He’s dead.

Camus — God is not dead — such a thing was always a fabrication.

Ayn Rand — Aristotle was right, there are ideas, an they do matter — here’s how — ideas help us describe and organize human purposes and our actions in quest of same. Reality exists objectively, and does not depend on our ideas or purposes. But the history of our conduct makes a difference to us — for example Hitler/Nazi/Genocide vs No Hitler/No Nazi/No Genocide — those two alternatives are not identical. Conduct matters. What Happens matters. Purposes matter. In that connection ideas matter. To that degree ideas are real. They are part of reality.

Robert Fenton Gary —- Camus and Heidegger were the deep thinkers and got it mostly right. But Rand’s idea that purposes and actions make a difference is also true. There is such a thing as objective reality, and mathematics is part of that 2 + 2 = 4 —- not just in your head, but as a matter of objective fact.

Also the Earth goes around the Sun, not just in your head, but as a matter of fact.

Also, Biden destroyed USA, not just in your head, but as a matter of fact.

Well, maybe in your head, to a degree, but in mine too, so you and I can use puffery to make this a fact for others, if we even get enough power. See Heidegger and Neitzsche had it right. If I become a Trillionaire President, I will make everybody know that Biden was a schmuck.

In short, you can know that Iron is not Copper, and that Rhodium is hard, and that Rhenium is strong at high temperatures. The rest of “knowledge” is fake. Also Sodium Chloride is salty.