What/How do we know?

• Platos Cave - Prisoners can only see shadows, essentially a shadow puppet show. The prisoners may only see the shadows. Therefore the prisoners reality is this cave. The light at the exit of the cave is therefore would essentially temporarily stun the prisoners. The prisoners perception will entirely shift because they have only been subject to the "reality of the shadows". Things such as color, smell, taste, etc may be shocking, and unexplainable to those prisoners within.
• By revisiting memories we shift them because of "Platos cave". We shift objective reality to accommodate to our subjective reality.
• This may be applied to the ethical problem of deepfakes.

Descartes

• Mind-Body Dualism - "I think therefore I am". Our physical body's senses are interpreted through our brain. Therefore our reality is dependent on our emotional state, we can assess that our reality is dependent on our subjective perception.
• Cogito Ergo Sum - "I think therefore I am" - Deductive reasoning/rationalist.
• Managed to prove nothing, however he gathered from this the theory. "I am able to exist because I am able to think."
• Ex. Phantom Limbs
• Empiricism - Say there is a real world, that there are physical things. Follows a similar process, however assume the natural world exists.
• Solipsism - Similar to Ergo sum, taken to the extreme. Everything is a construction of your own brain.