The Missing Educational Foundations: Why People Misunderstand Realism
Strategic Failure to Teach Epistemic Hierarchy & Foundationalism
Modern education has abandoned the principle that knowledge is hierarchical, instead favouring a fragmented approach that isolates disciplines from one another. Rather than presenting knowledge as an interconnected system with foundational principles, education through the past century (and prior) has structured itself around disjointed specializations, leading students to believe that each field of study operates independently. This fragmented approach has not only left students without a coherent understanding of reality but has also fostered a widespread rejection of metaphysical realism. Without an awareness of epistemic hierarchy, people assume that knowledge begins and ends with empirical observation, failing to recognize the deeper structures that make knowledge possible in the first place.
A proper epistemic hierarchy begins with metaphysics, which establishes the fundamental nature of reality. From this foundation, epistemology emerges, defining how we acquire and validate knowledge. Epistemology, in turn, shapes ethics, as moral truths depend on what we understand about reality and human nature. Ethics then informs law and governance, dictating how justice is structured and upheld within society. This structured approach ensures that legal and political systems remain grounded in objective reality rather than arbitrary consensus or ideological trends.
However, this hierarchical structure is no longer taught. Modern education severs metaphysics from epistemology, leaving students with an incomplete framework for understanding truth. They are taught how to analyze information but are never given the principles necessary to evaluate whether their method of analysis is valid. As a result, many believe that empirical observation alone is sufficient to build knowledge, without realizing that empirical data must be interpreted within a broader metaphysical framework to be meaningful.
This failure has led to the widespread assumption that realism is irrelevant and unnecessary. Because students are trained to view knowledge as something derived solely from sensory experience, they conclude that metaphysical foundations are either speculative or irrelevant. This assumption pushes them toward nominalism, constructivism, and relativism, as they come to believe that concepts like truth, justice, and law have no real existence outside of human perception. By neglecting epistemic hierarchy, education has created a world where people cannot discern between what is objectively true and what is socially constructed, making them vulnerable to ideological manipulation.
The consequences of this failure are profound. Without an awareness of foundational principles, ethics becomes detached from reality, leading to moral relativism. Law, in turn, ceases to be a reflection of justice and becomes merely a tool of power. Governance, once constrained by objective truth, devolves into a system of perception management, where those in control define reality for the governed. Because individuals are not trained to question the epistemological premises behind political and legal systems, they accept ever-shifting definitions of rights, justice, and governance without realizing that these changes are rooted in a deeper philosophical corruption.
Restoring epistemic hierarchy is the only way to correct this intellectual disintegration. People must be taught that knowledge is not self-generating; it must be built upon a firm foundation that acknowledges reality as it is, not as it is perceived or constructed. Without this restoration, the current trend of subjective legal interpretation, relativistic ethics, and managed democracy will continue, ensuring that truth remains at the mercy of those who control perception (Perceptum🪄).
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