Epistemology

This is my first time doing a blog, and since there's a lot of negative connotation surrounding these things, I should add that I am a bit hesitant, reluctant; call it what you like.
But connotations are silly things, that, while useful at times, should not limit the boundaries of practice. So here I am, practicing.

The title of this first entry will explore the choice that was made in the choosing of the title of this blog... epistemological queries. Why do I think an epistemological query is more useful than an ontological query?

I guess I have to backtrack and think about Descartes for this one. Descartes is that famous French philosopher who "cleared all the rubble" of previous philosophies and examined what he could be sure of based on his own experiences, more than anything else. Pretty much, he sorted out statements that could be said about the universe into distinct piles of NECESSARILY TRUE and only the seemingly true.

He said "Cogito ergo sum" which means I think therefore I am. This is the only completely foolproof statement that fits neatly into the necessarily true pile. Everything else we think is true about the universe could actually just be an illusion. Now he made some conclusions after that (many of which I disagree with), but this is the only statement which I wish to examine at the moment.

This statement is the only one that fits in the first pile. All we can be sure that exists is thought. Sensory perceptions, too, but I think those are types of thoughts. After all, your brain can make them up while you dream. Thus ontology, or the study of the world as it is, stops here. The rest of the world is in the other pile, of which we can only suppose these things to be true.

So epistemology is the study of how we know what we know-- and here, I am talking about relative knowingness, because we can't know the things that sit in the second pile to the same extent that we do of things in the first pile. Statements in the second pile do not have the absolute certainty that characterizes "Cogito Ergo Sum." These statements vary from person to person.

This is an interesting thing to think about... and this brings me back to the title of this entry, and the blog. Epistemology is more useful than ontology. With regards to what actually exists, all I can say for certain is that thought does; to be specific, my thought. Therefore my philosophical meanderings shall focus on the epistemological "truths," which are just processes by which my thoughts form.