How do you decide the difference between the things you think and the things you know?

Answer 1

I just think. What I can tell you about people who know is the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Answer 2

Anything that has to do with objective events, such as that the world is round, or that smoking is bad for you, or that I might have a dentist appointment tomorrow, or that Christmas in on December 25 . . . all these things are things that I think. I think they are true, I believe they are true, I may have plenty evidence, empirical, experiential, scientific or other reasons to think they are true . . . but any of these could, in principle, be contradicted. It could turn out that I was mistaken about Christmas being on December 25. It could turn out that my entire life is just an artificial reality being created by a Matrix that I am plugged into. Anything I think could, in principle, be contradicted and proven false. So that if something could, in principal, be proven false -- no matter how remote the possibility -- then that is merely something that I think.

Anything that is present moment experience -- i.e., subjective events -- such as the taste of an apple as I eat it, or that there is existence . . . these things I know. I know them because there is nothing that, even in principle, could contradict them and prove them false. The taste of an apple may be different in the future, its taste may be different than what I expected, but the present moment experience of the taste that I am experiencing can only be contradicted in the future or the past . . . in the present moment the taste is exactly as it tastes . . . it cannot be contradicted. Therefore, what is experienced in the present moment, being without even the possibility of contradiction, is what I know.

Answer 3

Through experience, education and investigation. The things you think can be directly related to the things you know, such as everyone knows George Bush is the President but not everyone thinks his administration is good. The things you think can also be completely unrelated to anything we know, such as "is there a God?" The difference is decided by being able to tell what is directly related to facts and life experiences and what is imagination or philosophical consideration.

Answer 4

As I am into reality, the things I think about are pretty much the things I know and vice versa.

Answer 5

I things I think are true come from my personal experience and can not be verified by empirical tests. The things I know are true can be confirmed by empirical tests.

Answer 6

The things you think are ideas, sometimes waiting to be proven, and sometimes just things you like to think.
Things you know can be solid things, like things you've learned in education, or with experience, (hot is hot, cold is cold). Things you know can be people, places, or objects you have knowledge of their existence.

Answer 7

You contemplate all the facts you have learned and decide which of your "thoughts" is your original thought and which is learned facts from surveys and studies done by experts. Then you go with the "experts opinion" unless yours you have tested and found superior.

Answer 8

i dont know!, but that reminds me, of a very wise man, who once stated, the unknown we know, and the knowns we dont know, or think we do or dontknow, or somethign liek that lol ..and how there is known unknowns and unknown knows, whta you think???

Answer 9

While Socrates claimed a wise man is a man who does not claim to know any thing he does not know, your question echoes written thoughts of Epictetus.
How do we know that we really know?
Do we really know anything, or merely regurgitate what we think we know?
How do we know that we think we know what we know?
Can we ever know?
Great "make you think" question, thanks.

Answer 10

.By the amount of evidence. If you are rational you will know what is reality and what is your imagination.