For me, it all started coming together when I stumbled upon a most wonderful book.
http://www.myshortpencil.com/schooltalk/_images/adler.pdf
The book was so simply written. It explained without pomp or technicality how we know what we know.
It traced the mistakes great thinkers made by identifying how and why those mistakes changed how civilizations understand things slightly incorrectly.
Little fundamental errors in our premise make huge consequences in how we introduce error into our conclusions historically.
1.The mistake about our own "consciousness"
2.The mistake about the human Mind.
3.The failure to recognize that ideas are meanings.
4.The mistake that philosophy is not as important as science.
5.The mistake that makes "good" and "evil" subjective.
6.The mistake of not understanding happiness.
7.Misunderstanding freedom of choice vs determinism.
8.Denying human nature.
9.Failure to understand how forms of human association are both natural and conventional
10.The Fallacy of reductionism
The Author demonstrates reasonably and logically why knowledge consists of:
1. The addition of new truths to our existing body of knowledge.
2. The replacement of less accurate or comprehensive forms with
better ones.
3. The discover and rectification of errors.
4. The discarding of generalizations that have been falsified by
negative instances.
If only I had read this book BEFORE I encountered Jehovah's Witnesses!!
