On naturalism and consciousness

[Neo-Scholastic]

Here I am making a distinction between knowledge and true belief as it relates to speculative ideas for which no one can offer any justification ....

...everything I believe about the mind, the soul and the nature of personal identity can be prefaced with "it is as though.." without any sense of loss on my part.

So it seems you require a more certain stance toward what you believe than I do about what I believe...Could you imagine holding your personal belief about subjective experience in a provisional way? Are you sure anyone is entitled to such certainty?

Yes, a person can go through life without pondering much of anything on a deep philosophical level and still enjoy life immensely. And, yes, I can imagine it because I think that way about many things. At the same time, I am by temperament a man that wants to know about reality on the most fundamental level. Some things I used to believe have proven to be more tentative that I first thought and some things I've come to know with great certainty. I see this only as a good thing.