How can you know if you do not know something ?

[Jo96]

Just this.  How do you know if you do know, and if you think you can’t know how do you know that’s true?

[Moksha]

Logically, it's impossible to prove a negative. You can never prove that something is not, only that it is. 

Phenomenally, you can know facts within the prescribed scope of those facts. For example, you can know that 2+2=4 given the rules of mathematics, but your knowledge is relative to those rules.

Philosophically, consciousness is self-aware. It recognizes itself and knows itself because it is itself.

[Jo96]

23 minutes ago, Moksha said:

Logically, it's impossible to prove a negative. You can never prove that something is not, only that it is. 

Phenomenally, you can know facts within the prescribed scope of those facts. For example, you can know that 2+2=4 given the rules of mathematics, but your knowledge is relative to those rules.

Philosophically, consciousness is self-aware. It recognizes itself and knows itself because it is itself.

So then how can we be introspective into ourselves ? 

[JosephKnecht]

"I know that I know nothing" - Socrates

That is true knowledge. 

[Moksha]

1 hour ago, Jo96 said:

So then how can we be introspective into ourselves ? 

Through meditation  I recommend the Bhagavad Gita as an excellent practical handbook on the path to Self-knowledge.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Moksha

[zazed]

Assume you know nothing. Knowledge is irrelevant and over rated.
This way you are free to experience life. Knowledge is a crux, as it colors your experience preventing you from being fully aware of what is as it is.
Knowledge leads to arrogance, making you choose not to believe what you experience, because you have certain expectations.

A baby knows nothing and learns everything at great speed, it is not worried about such philosophical mental masturbations.

2 + 2 = 11 in base3

[Jo96]

@zazed yeah I got to that point, but now I’m at the stage where I’m questioning if I actually do not know. 

[Someone here]

Knowledge is a conceptual layer on being. There is no knowing because who is to know and what is to know? Duality.  So In a sense you don't know anything because you are. Being.