Skepticism and the Pursuit of Truth

 

    Those who pay attention to the media and the news may find that they are susceptible to the trickery and manipulation which may come alongside their factual news feed. This may also be true for anyone who is exposed to any form of information as the establishment of an industry alone and the presence of information in a college textbook by itself is enough to convince many people of the validity of the information. Current knowledge may contain errors and there is also the chance that something is being overlooked. Even science doesn't have a shield to protect it from possible human error. This is why blindly accepting knowledge can cause us to remain as foolish as our predecessors. It is therefore an intellectual responsibility to remain skeptical until knowledge has been verified by oneself. Skepticism is a virtue to uphold in order to avoid being led into believing in false information. For example, if one reads a news headline that a scientist has discovered a new element, it is wiser to remain skeptical until that knowledge has been verified by oneself. The reason for this is that statement may or may not be known to be true until one verifies it. The only way to verify that this statement is true is by directly observing the new element that has been discovered in a laboratory. Through the media outlet, this knowledge is received by means of testimony and should therefore be correctly understood to be a belief. All knowledge that is a belief has a truth value that remains uncertain and it is to be properly understood that the truth remains uncertain as one makes their decision on whether to believe the statement. If we are skeptical about knowledge and question it's validity, then we can make better decisions on what information we choose to believe. With the approach of skepticism, we can reach as close to the truth as we can.

    In the late 10^th and early 11^th centuries there was a mathematician and philosopher named Ibn Al-Haytham. Ibn Al-Haytham taught that if one's goal is to obtain the truth, then one should make themselves an enemy of everything they read, attacking it from all sides. We can reach as close to the truth as we can by viewing the information that has been presented to us from all of the perspectives that we can think of and by also questioning it's truth. The Greek philosopher Socrates also taught that asking questions is a method to examine the truth of knowledge. 

    If, for example, someone teaches you that every piece of evidence that we have obtained in the last 100 years has agreed with the theory of evolution, we can blindly accept this knowledge or we can be wise and remain skeptical of this knowledge as we have not yet verified this statement to be true by examining all of the evidence ourselves. If we look at the evidence and we come across the evidence of the two species of monkeys that live in the distant corners of South America and Africa and the scientific explanation for their migrations to their natural habitats is that monkeys floated across the Atlantic Ocean on mats of vegetation during a storm, then we can conclude that not all of the evidence that we have gathered in the last 100 years agrees with the theory of evolution and that as a matter of fact, we have evidence that contradicts it. This is why we should remain skeptical of any piece of knowledge we may encounter, even if it is presented by professionals who work in higher education institutes. The pursuit of truth should be made our goal when it comes to knowledge. We can take easy steps towards acquiring the truth by asking questions and by distinguishing between facts and beliefs.

“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” -Albert Einstein

© 2026 Hazon, Nir

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The Practice of Compassion

 

    My study and practice of Eastern psychology began when I was 17 years old. It was during this time and the several years that followed when I was actively incorporating many of the teachings of Buddhist wisdom into my life. I no longer have to consciously apply many of these teachings as they have become my second nature. In other words, they have become my habitual responses to the events of life. One of these teachings is the teaching of compassion. I recall my many times of practicing the teaching of compassion and I place a great value of importance on this teaching as it serves as an effective method of emotional self-healing. The teaching of compassion has helped steer me through my many past times of unusually difficult and horrific living conditions.

    Without going into too much detail, one example of the circumstances I endured was having all of the money I earned from working jobs taken from me. As a legal adult, I was also not allowed to choose the clothes in my wardrobe, and on some evenings I was even denied dinner, among countless other injustices. My parental figures at the time were an evil step-dad and an evil mother who made it clear to me and told me that they will not allow me to move out of their household and that I had to comply and obey. I did manage to escape them at the age of 26 with the help of 2 friends who assisted me as my eye-witnesses for when I called the sheriffs to evacuate all of my belongings from the garage that I was sleeping in after sharing several videos of what was happening to me on social media. Nevertheless, the period of time that I had to endure these great injustices lasted for 8 years after 18 years old. I attribute my ability to endure all of my struggles mostly to my experience of practicing Buddhist wisdom. It was during these times of hardship when I employed the teaching of compassion.

    The most important practice of the teaching of compassion is the practice of self-compassion. To practice self-compassion, we take a moment to reflect on ourselves and what we are going through and we deliberately choose to be compassionate for ourselves. Practicing this alleviates our suffering, cleanses our minds, and elevates our mood. Once practiced enough times, self-compassion can become our natural response to life's unfortunate circumstances.

    The second most important practice of the teaching of compassion is the practice of having compassion for others. By practicing compassion for others, we cultivate the therapeutic state of mind that comes with it, and by doing so we improve our own ability to have compassion for ourselves. Having compassion for others can also help us understand that we are not alone in the world when it comes to suffering. The outcome of the practice of compassion is emotional self-healing.

    There are many people who do not know of this method of self-healing and are clueless to the fact that this is something that they can do to assist themselves during times of suffering. If we learn that we can practice compassion and we give it a try, we can evolve ourselves to become wiser human beings that use our minds to work for our well-being.

© 2026 Hazon, Nir

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The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

 

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been ongoing for a number of decades. It is a topic of war, bloodshed, hate, and discrimination. All those who are affected by this conflict, including those people who only read of this subject, may experience emotions of suffering as a result. The goals of this paper are to help the reader who may carry feelings concerning this subject alleviate their suffering and to educate on how I create peace with Palestinians. While there are many that may doubt that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians can take place, there are also many people, including myself, who believe that peace is achievable. I have seen this in my life on an individual basis and I have begun seeing it happen on the world stage with new movements for peace such as Realign for Palestine and The Abraham Accords.

    Peace between Israelis and Palestinians on an individual basis can be easily achieved with logical reasoning. If one realizes that both parties have no reason to hate one another when they do not think of themselves primarily as Israelis and Palestinians, then one can conclude that hatred in cases such as this is foolish behavior. This form of hatred is strictly based on the labels of nationality that one places upon others and neither party has a real reason to hate one another as they do not even know each other. What people need to know is that not every Palestinian wants war and not every Israeli agrees with new settlements in the West Bank. There are individuals, families, and groups of both sides who would enjoy peace, going to work, and living their lives. There are some who would argue that this conflict of war is over land. I would argue that, as we can see, the Israelis did not take that much land from the Arab world and that losing land or material possessions is not the end of the world. Life can continue from that point forward, and doing so is preferable to resorting to barbaric behavior such as violence and bloodshed. I, personally, have lived an unusually difficult life, and there was a time when I lost all of my material possessions. Rather than focusing my energy on seeking revenge, I continued living my life from that point forward. This is the preferable approach to living life as we continue taking steps towards prosperity instead of taking steps towards additional misery and sorrow. The continuation of this conflict of war is unnecessary.

    Peace between the Palestinians and Israelis on the world stage can be a permanent ceasefire and we can have that at any given time. This depends on the governing bodies of the Palestinians and Israelis. Until both governing bodies agree to a permanent ceasefire, we cannot enjoy peace on the world stage. We can, however, enjoy peace with one another on an individual basis. I, an Israeli-born man, have enjoyed making peace with Palestinians here in Los Angeles. When I encounter Palestinians here, I tell them nice things like “We come here to get away from the conflict” and “We come here to wash our sins away in the Pacific Ocean.” Peace on an individual basis is an easy process and many other Israelis and Palestinians as well as Jews and Muslims enjoy it here in the United States of America. My first best friend in America was a Muslim, in high school I played basketball with Palestinians and I even had a Palestinian best friend. One of my graduation photographs from college is myself doing a fist bump with a Palestinian graduate. I performed a rap presentation for my trigonometry class with a Palestinian beatboxer and posted the video on YouTube. One of my favorite memories is the time a Palestinian woman jumped me with a hug. As a known peace-maker between our peoples in the Los Angeles area, it was brought to my attention that there is an Israeli-Palestinian marriage that happened in Los Angeles.

    In the media of today it may be difficult to navigate through all of the hateful rhetoric when it comes to this subject. It seems that our understandings of the terms “Pro-Israel” and “Pro-Palestinian” are ones of strictly supporting one of the sides with the opposition to the other when we can be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. From an American perspective, as our political objectives are to create peace between Israelis and Palestinians, we should seek to be both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. What this means is not being anti either side and wishing for a safe lifestyle for both peoples.

    I have studied the teachings of Christianity in order to enhance my networking skills as I live in a Christian majority nation and I have discovered a useful teaching. Christianity teaches it's followers to forgive their enemies. While it may appear in some cases that forgiveness is outright stupid, in many other cases it is not and could serve the purpose of cleansing our own minds of negative emotions. This is why, whenever it is possible to do so, we should forgive our enemies. We can find ways to forgive our enemies in order to cleanse our minds. For example, we can forgive our enemies on the basis that they may have received poor education and that they may be under pressure from others to oppose us. Teachings such as this as well as ones that are included in Buddhist wisdom can help us alleviate our suffering.

    In recent times, there have been campaigns of misinformation that have been targeting those who support Israel. These campaigns of misinformation teach lies such as “Israel is a European colonial project” and “All Jews are white.” I am personally offended by the latter, which has arisen numerous times in conversations that I have been around, as I am a man of brown skin tone of 100% Yemeni Jewish descent. It is also worthy to note that Israel is not a European colonial project and is a direct result of the unfortunate genocide of the Jewish people known as The Holocaust. These campaigns of misinformation bring about chaos in the world and we must shun their voices as their objectives are not ones of mutual benefit to both peoples of this conflict. Adolf Hitler taught that if you tell a lie enough times then others will believe it. This is why it is important for these voices to be shunned. There are also people on both sides who may post on social media or say things that are based on emotional feelings instead of rational thinking when it comes to this subject and offend other people as a result. With the proper education, we can minimize this problem as well as solve many others. It can be viewed from the perspective that the Palestinian people have the opportunity to be the group of people in the world who granted peace upon the Jews.

    The truth is that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is achievable. The statement that it is achievable is true. I also know from personal experience that our peoples are compatible with one another. Whether the governing bodies of both peoples reach an agreement for a permanent ceasefire cannot be controlled by the ordinary person, however, we can enjoy peace-making on an individual level. By seeing the truth of the individuality of people, we can eliminate the hatred that we may foolishly hold for an entire group of people. Efforts toward progress in the peace-making process can bring about real change and hope, and even through the clouds of hateful rhetoric, we can see this happening right now.

© 2026 Hazon, Nir

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The Concept of Intellectual Humility

 

    The concept of intellectual humility does not mean that one actually needs to feel humiliated. It means being rational enough to desire learning the truth more than always being correct. Intellectual humility is a characteristic that defies foolishness. Being overconfident in one's expertise can lead to the mistake of overlooking the things that have not been considered. The claim of certainty can only be true for knowledge that is obtained by direct observation or is the only possibility. Our desire to learn the truth is more important and beneficial than any illogical stubbornness one may have. Intellectual humility may arise when we make mistakes, are misinformed, or are uninformed. We can learn the new information that has caused us intellectual humility and we can revise our knowledge thereafter. This is the wiser approach for the acquisition of knowledge as we obtain a clearer understanding of the truth as a result.

    When it comes to the acquisition of knowledge, there are many techniques that one can employ to evaluate the truth. We can find some detailed procedures on the evaluation of knowledge for it's truth in the study of epistemology. One of the most important and applicable teachings of philosophy is the teaching by Socrates to ask questions to assess the truth. Being wrong at times is acceptable, and we do not want foolishness to hinder us from making progress towards realizing the truth.

© 2026 Hazon, Nir

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The Importance of Epistemology

    The importance of the subject of epistemology, the study of knowledge, is often overlooked. It is also agreed upon that the subject of epistemology is incomplete in it's current state. The improvements that could be made to all of our subjects and our everyday lives goes unseen as a result. The universally accepted outlined procedure of the inquiry of knowledge is the one that covers everything that we can do to inspect the truth to it's greatest detail. A universally accepted classification of the types of knowledge exists, depending on what lens one needs for their purpose. When knowledge is viewed with the distinction between absolute facts and beliefs, clarity is attained, and this is a universally accepted categorization of the types of knowledge. Within these categories we can place the additional sub-categories of knowledge where they fit. For example, knowledge that is based on direct observation is placed in the category of absolute facts and knowledge that is obtained through testimony is placed in the category of beliefs. The only knowledge that constitutes absolute facts is made either through direct observation or is the only possibility. With this clear understanding that pertains to knowledge in general, students of all subjects as well as newspaper readers can better understand the information that they are educated with, the scientists of today will make less mistakes, and clarity will be widespread. Due to all of the plausible improvements that could take place as a result, the study of epistemology requires completion.

    I have taken some time to do additional research on the knowledge that we currently have in epistemology. According to ChatGPT, there are several classifications of the types of knowledge all of which are not universally accepted. There is the classifications of knowledge by type which is the most commonly used one. The classifications of knowledge by type include propositional knowledge, which is knowing a fact or a proposition, procedural knowledge, which is knowing how to perform a task, and acquaintance knowledge, which is knowledge gained through direct familiarity such as knowing your best friend. I suppose that this is another way to view the types of knowledge but I am unsure of the purpose of viewing knowledge in this way at this time. Maybe in the future I will become well-versed in all the knowledge that we currently possess in epistemology.

    There is also the classification of knowledge by source which I think is the brightest classification that is currently included in the curriculum of epistemology. Here the types of knowledge are classified by their source. There is perception, which is knowledge obtained through the senses, memory, which is knowledge retained from previous experiences, testimony, which is knowledge acquired from other people, reason, which is knowledge obtained through logical thinking, and introspection, which is knowledge about one's own mental states. I think that this classification of the types of knowledge can be useful for discerning the reliability of the information once we identify it's source. This classification of knowledge does have a universally accepted version. We can figure it out. Do humans have any other sources for their knowledge? Do any of the sources in this classification overlap under a greater umbrella source? Do the categories of knowledge obtained through reason and knowledge obtained through introspection actually belong under a greater term of knowledge obtained from personal thoughts?

    ChatGPT also presents me with different theories that explain what makes knowledge justified. Before I state the names of these theories alongside their short descriptions that I have been provided with, I would like to make several remarks. These theories seem to be concerned with beliefs and justifying those beliefs. These theories have different goals than my own theory in epistemology which is titled “The Theory of Acceptance of Knowledge” which differentiates between indisputable knowledge and questionable knowledge. The goal of my theory is to understand the substance of the knowledge at hand and to be able to see what it is thereby assisting us in our decisions of what knowledge we choose to accept. The different theories that explain what makes knowledge justified include foundationalism, which believes that knowledge rests upon properly basic beliefs, coherentism, which believes that beliefs are justified because they fit coherently into an interconnected system of beliefs, infinitism, which believes that justification consists of an infinite chain of supporting reasons, reliabilism, which believes that knowledge comes from cognitive processes that reliably produce true beliefs, and virtue epistemology, which believes that knowledge arises through the exercise of intellectual virtues such as honesty, careful reasoning, and open-mindedness. What do you think about these theories? What do they sound like to you? Do you think that these theories have properly understood meanings and objectives? I would have to read them one by one in order for me to learn all about them. However, the goals of these theories do seem to be in a different and less important direction than the goal of the theory that I have concluded.

    The vast volume of upgrades to our education and lives awaits us with the completion of the field of epistemology. I have defined what the universally accepted versions of some of the teachings of epistemology are in this essay. The completion of this subject will bring humanity one step up the stairway to higher intellect. Up this stairway of the intellectuality of mankind rests an achievable level of higher human intelligence known as the age of peace of mankind.

© 2026 Hazon, Nir

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We Require Epistemology

 

    We require epistemology. The theories that exist in epistemology are incomplete with their reasoning and logic. As we can see from sources such as The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, epistemology is taught in terms of cognitive success. Teaching epistemology in terms of cognitive success creates confusion. What does cognitive success have to do with understanding what things are when it comes to the study of knowledge?

    The field of epistemology needs improvement. The teachings that are currently being presented seem to be closer to nonsense than clear understanding. In epistemology, there is the Gettier problem. The Gettier problem argues that a person can have justified true belief without having knowledge. What does this teach? That we can have a belief and that it is not knowledge? What is the purpose of this teaching? This teaching seems to lack a purpose and nothing becomes achievable as a result of this teaching. The objectives of epistemology must be adjusted and the theories of this field of study must be completed in order for our society to further advance in intellect. Every day life is an applicable area for this subject of study.

    In the 10th century, there was an Arab mathematician and philosopher named Ibn Al-Haytham. Ibn Al-Haytham proved that vision occurs when light is reflected from an object, disproving the current day's belief that eyes emit light rays. He also pioneered the use of controlled testing to verify hypotheses centuries before the European Renaissance. He encouraged skepticism as a duty. He believed that a seeker of truth must question all existing knowledge rather than blindly trusting tradition. He famously wrote that a scientist must become an enemy of everything they read, attacking it from every side to find the absolute truth. I understand this exact same thing and I have published my “Theory of Acceptance of Knowledge” on my website which is accompanied by my text “The Measurement of Existence in the Theory of Acceptance of Knowledge.” My theory classifies the types of knowledge that exist and distinguishes between indisputable knowledge and questionable knowledge. The text that accompanies my theory provides methods that we can utilize in order to examine the truth of knowledge. My theory has a purpose and it can be applied to many fields of study as well as to everyday life.

    If people learn my theory, then they will become able to distinguish between what is indisputable knowledge and what is questionable knowledge thereby improving their clarity and enriching their understanding of all things that are knowledge. My theory has the purpose of teaching what we are to accept and what we are to not accept as knowledge.

 

It is agreed upon that the study of epistemology is incomplete in it's current state.

 

I'm really just trying to get us started. We must complete epistemology.

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The Introduction of Buddhist Wisdom

 

 

When introduced to the teachings of Buddhist wisdom, one may mistake the identity of the information to be a belief system. This is why I begin my scroll of wisdom which is on my website with the quote from the Buddha “Do not listen to what anybody says, including me, if it does not agree with your own common sense.” Upon learning the teachings of Buddhist wisdom such as “If we just abandon hate, then we can enjoy being hate free.” one may wonder how they might accomplish becoming hate free with their mind or misunderstand the meaning of the application of this teaching. In order to apply this teaching, one must begin practicing the removal of hatred whenever they become aware that they are experiencing hatred. The removal of hatred itself can be performed by a conscious decision to not adopt it or by other methods such as practices of meditation to feel the emotion until it passes. After doing this enough times it becomes easy. It also becomes your instinct. Practicing the teachings of Buddhist wisdom is like learning how to drive. They become second nature. There are many mental health benefits as well as beneficial character development qualities that can be gained through the practice of Buddhist knowledge.

 

I would also like to point out that the reason that the Buddha is depicted as laughing can be understood through this quote of “If we just abandon hate, then we can enjoy being hate free.” Certain explanations of Buddhist teachings explain it in the words that people are foolish and that they need to realize it and that is all that they need to do in order to become “enlightened”, which is being aware of oneself and acquiring the knowledge and practice of the teachings of Buddhist wisdom. Hatred is an unhealthy emotion that, through practice, can be expelled. The laughter of the Buddha stems from the idiocy one may have if they are simply not aware of the fact that the mind can be altered and transformed to our liking.

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