in light of the previous post, we understand such concepts
as justice and equality in terms of our sensory experiences…
I have experience injustice and inequality and so I have experienced it
through my senses… I have also read about injustice and inequality
so, I can compare my experiences of injustice and inequality with others…
this comparison allows me to further understand injustice and inequality…
then I can compare other events of injustice and inequality in terms
of my event and thus I can better understand such concepts…this is
the rational, active understanding of the universe… by understanding
experiences, mine and others, I can gain a better understanding of
the universe…
so we have added comparison to sensory experiences that helps us
to better understand the world we live in…
if I compare events that are considered unjust, I can get a better
understanding of what is injustice…
once again, it is through outside events that we gain an understanding
of our universe… the role of the rational mind is in comparing
those events…but the mind isn’t passive, it is active…
from these events of injustice, I can make a judgment about
the nature of injustice…so some combination of sensory
events and active rational comparison, for example, we can
gain understanding of the universe… there are other tools
with which we can understanding of the universe beyond
comparison, such as logic and math and geometry and science which
also use examples from which we use our senses to gather knowledge
of the universe…
we have a sensory perception such as hearing something and we
can use our tools of comparison or logic or math or science
to gain knowledge of that event…we have a large variety
of tools in which to understand sensory knowledge…
we see the sun rising and setting… what tool would you use
to gather information about the sun rising or setting?
Science would be the best tool as science has created a
well documented and well understood theory of why the
sun seems to rise and set…we have a sensory experience
and we must use our rational thought to best understand
that experience and we must use our rational thought to
find/seek the best tool we need to understand that sensory
experience…
it is as we grow more experience with experiences, we
discover that the number of tools we have to understand those
experiences grow…once again, the dance between events/ experiences
and our sensory tools, sight and so on, continues…
Kropotkin