Self Evidence

Self Evidence (2013)

36″ x 36″

Ink on wood

Self Evidence is composed of one very long sentence. We ask the question “How do you know?” all the time, but we seldom extend that by wondering how we know that we know. Hopefully this drives home the infinite regress problem that arises when asking the question, “How do you know that you know?” What is being asked for here is confirmation, some kind of justification. At some point you have to deal with the inability to provide further explanations, and while logically the process itself has no end, eventually we claim the answer to be “self evident.” This may be close to but it’s not the same as when you might say to your child, out of exasperation, “because I said so!” The foundational principles of logic are claimed to be self evident, and possibly the recognition of that is good evidence of the conscious self.