Nothing has any connection to reality...or has as much as you want it to...truth is absolute...its interpretation, experience and application are subjective...so no argument really holds!
My response:
You realize that your statement “Nothing has any connection to reality” is self-contradictory. If nothing has connection to reality, then neither does your statement.
However, you have elegantly stated the dominant epistemological viewpoint in academia today: the claim that knowledge is impossible (another contradiction by the way).
That such a statement is ludicrous on its face goes some length in explaining why academics are reviled by the “ignorant masses”, who tend to have more common sense.
I revere the pursuit of knowledge, and find it particularly tragic (ominous actually) that our brightest minds have committed themselves to attacking reason, when they should be its staunchest defenders.
Contrary to the skeptic/subjectivist party line, humans are fully competent to know the facts of reality. The knowledge acquired from the senses is valid. Concepts are derived from and do refer to the facts of reality. 2+2=4 and no amount of denial or evasion will change that.
However, to understand why is not obvious. It’s the subject of the branch of philosophy known as epistemology – or the theory of knowledge.
Today most people dismiss philosophy as frivolous. They think it has no practical advice to offer them. And in regards to current academic philosophy, that assessment is perfectly understandable. Most of today’s philosophers see their field as an abstruse parlor game with no connection to reality. However, philosophy is an indispensable practical necessity. If you brush aside the subject of philosophy, you will subconsciously absorb the dominant philosophic ideas that are taught in our culture. And as we can see from its effects on art, music, literature, politics, law, history, and even physics, bad philosophy can be disastrous.
