Metaphysics And Epistemology

One cannot know anything about metaphysics, either about the logical necessity or possibility that every aspect of every issue is strictly dictated by, without knowing something, or in other words, without engaging in rationalistic epistemology—to make assumptions is intrinsically erroneous epistemology since it is impossible to know and assume at the same time.  Still, if there was not metaphysical truth to discover, even if only in some cases that one is experiencing certain unverifiable perceptions that at the very least require the existence of mental experiences, there would be nothing to know.  One has to exist as a consciousness and be aware of one's consciousness (and thus not be in something like a perpetual dreamless sleep, which would entail existence but no knowledge) in order to perceive and think.  An unconscious stone, if stones really are as unconscious as they seem and no sort of panpsychism or animism is true, cannot know because it does not think to even have the capacity to demonstrate proofs or perceive literally anything whatsoever.

More foundationally, the laws of logic are required to know anything that can be known, and the axioms on which all other necessary truths hinge are the only things that are self-evident in the strictest sense.  Even knowing that one's own mind exists, which cannot be disbelieved or denied or doubted on any level without the existence of one's mind to do the disbelieving or doubting (and is therefore in one sense self-evident and absolutely certain), still is a matter of grasping the logical necessity of any sort of thought or perception only existing within a consciousness.  Apart from logic, it could not be known that one's own mind exists, though logic is still true apart from conscious comprehension of it, for it is not merely true of other things, but true in itself.  Every conscious being is dependent on reason metaphysically and epistemologically even if it is blissfully lost in the delusion of assumptions or philosophical apathy.

Without consciousness, there is nothing to do the knowing—nothing that is metaphysically capable of having knowledge—and without logic, nothing is true or even possible to begin with, whether about reason itself or God or one's own mind or the natural world or social constructs and all things therein or otherwise.  Of course, the laws of logic are true in themselves, as self-necessary truths that could only be false if they were still true (making them reality either way).  One thing that follows logically from another, for instance, could not not follow from that idea.  If not, it would still be the case that it follows logically from the nature of reality that logic and everything it would entail is not true, which still means logic is true and can only be true since it is never false no matter what else is the case.  Anything that contradicts reason cannot be true, though consistency with reason alone does not make a given concept correct.  Everyone is living in dependence on these facts even if they have never started to dwell on either metaphysics or the epistemology that proves things about the former.

Metaphysics and epistemology are certainly intertwined so that a person cannot access one without the other whether they intend to discover what can be known of reality or not.  It is nonetheless not a mutual interdependence outside of a being in some sense relying on one to access the other.  Metaphysics by nature being unknowable except through epistemology does not mean that the former is dependent on the latter for its existence and truth.  Metaphysics exists without epistemology in that truth does not have to be known to exist, while knowledge cannot exist unless it is true that knowledge exists, which requires that a conscious mind exists, which in turn depends wholly on the necessity of reason in every way.  Every idea is either true or false independent of whether someone has ever pondered the matter or actually reached the logical truth about it.  That what is true is true with or without one's awareness or care still does not mean that there is a way to know without the absolute certainty of avoiding all assumptions and looking strictly to reason and all that it entails and illuminates.