Epistemologic Princess Vol. I

Usually, especially for my more complex pieces, I start by brainstorming a topic. That means I sit down, drink a shit ton of coffee, and get into an altered state of awareness, and let all associated images and words pass through my mind. This is the key to my work as it translates the idea or theme into symbols.

Most of my work has double or even triple layers of meaning. Epistemologic Princess Vol. I is no exception, and I'm providing the full text as well as a guide to understanding the meaning. Rarely do I include the text that lead to the image as part of the piece, but here it is nonetheless.  Inspired by the lovely Marie Terra, This piece is about the history and modern application of the philosophy called Epistemology. The main visual element, the magnifying glass, represents this philosophy's practice of closely analyzing the structure of belief. (Check out Marie's photography here)

One last thing. I cite my quotations with academic references (usually) to prove all these passages are not just a load of shit. What seems like "bonkers text" is sceintific/academic passages translated into prose.

Enjoy!




Common speech more like common screech - to a halt (1)
perhaps a lapse in evolutionary leak prevention (2)
Trump times take scientist's paradigm on its head
like ingesting lead lead Romans to death
but with it levies tax of light bulb, (3)

Socrates went to bank and deposits empirical coins to scientific account (4)
Gettier go-getter go philosopher's panties tied thousands of years, (5)
True believers not considered human by the ape, (6)
job applicants' ten pocket coins obsession blind to his own fortune (7)

The go-getter receives constant reality fiat to sustain belief
Trumper efficient ideology survives on scraps,
guess who cares? (8)



Logos=knowledge, nature of justification, logic of belief,
truth pain in the tooth of the Trumper, (9)
Problems with the skepticism unanswered by the scientist, (10)
The Scottish wildcat pen-named Epistemon, caught bird in flight
King James farts and the journalists write, (11)
How many monkeys does it take to type critically? (12)
Debate rebate grabbed by the priest,
The diest has contest about burning the witch,
and the Greek scientist's ode written is a poster on King's wall, (13)
Dialogue by stand-up comic bounced off the mic and splattered the audience, (14)
Branch of philosophy has cancerous growth, (15)
Emile the hedgehog uncurls to identity reality, goes to the barber to get a haircut, (16)

the known 2+2=4 process is silent about the journey like taxonomist ignorant about thousands of
lepidopteran lives pinned, (17)
English distinctions indigest the immigrant,
Italian translator's misplaced radio dial not so simple to sew together, (18)
Wisen Kennen not brew, bro, but drug to recognize and demonize acknowledgement (19)

1.  Patterns of culture by the masses is generally uncritical, unintelligent and erodes societal progress (in general) 
2.  This feature, of general intellectual poverty, could be a blind spot in the idea that humans are an enlightened species. However, with every curse, there is also a blessing.
3. The election of President Trump is a sign of society rebelling against the scientific paradigm, that is, people are rebelling against a strict observance of the outside world as a basis for reality.
4. An idea in epistemological thought (started by greek philosopher Socrates) is that a "fact" is really just a "belief" that must consistently be reinforced. For instance, the belief that gravity exists (called a fact) must be reinforced moment to moment to be considered reality. ( Cornford, Francis M. Plato's theory of knowledge: The theaetetus and the sophist. Courier Corporation, 2003.)
5. The Gettier Problem, first conceived by American Philosopher Edmund Gettier, has questioned the theory of knowledge that has been passed down for thousands of years. The "go-getter" reference brings attention to the iconoclastic qualities of his work.  (for more info on this problem see this link).
6. Many times, rational-based belief system holders (i.e. Liberals) see those that utilize more basic methods to construct their reality (i.e. "Trump supporters") as inferior humans, yet fail to see blindspots in their own systems. 
7. As part of his work, Gettier presents several "cases" to exemplify his theories. One of these involves the the structure of belief in a job applicant who is so obsessed in figuring out if other job applicants are more qualified than he is, blinding him to his own qualifications. (Gettier, Edmund (1963). "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?". Analysis. 23 (6): 121–23. JSTOR 3326922. doi:10.2307/3326922) 
8. While the "liberal" belief system requires constant external feedback, that of the "Trumper" can survive on scraps of external perception, thus it is more "efficient" in this sense.
9.  Objective "truth" is generally an obstacle in the worldview of the Trump supporter.
10. The rational liberal is often blinded to the loopholes of a "rational" paradigm of existence.
11. King James VI of Scotland  created a character named Epistemon to personify philosophical debate of whether ancient religious perceptions about witchcraft should be uses to excuse punishments in Christian Society (King James; Warren, Brett. The Annotated Daemonologie. A Critical Edition. In Modern English. 2016. p. x-xi. ISBN 1-5329-6891-4).
12. A pun of the parable "how long and many monkeys does it take to write  a shakespeare play by chance?" How many monkeys to evolve critical thinking humans?
13. Epistemon means scientist in Greek, and was a favorite parable used by King VI to illustrate these important societal questions.
14. The words of those in power can have a great affect on the masses
15. Every theory has holes and is imperfect. These imperfections, if left unanswered, can lead to rogue ideology.
16. Emile is a fictional character named after  Émile Meyerson, French epistemologist. The idea is that the limited belief system of a defensive individual ("i.e. Trump Supporter") can be shed to allow a more open system that incorporate more information from the external world.
17.  The limitations of "reality" based belief systems, for example the scientific world view, is that they do not give information of what a process is like in experience. For example, the taxonomist can tell you a lot about which scientific classification a butterfly belongs in, but cannot fathom what its like to live as a butterfly.
18. The translation from one language to another is often times a process stitched by indirect and mismatched linguistic elements in order to make sense. For example, in Spanish "ir de viaje" can be directly transliterated as "Going as a trip" in English but would make little sense. Thus, in order for a proper translation to occur, other words not directly being referenced must be used.
19. The german words wissen and kennen are used to differentiate nunances in  acknowledging knowledge (see this link). They do sound like beer types, though.