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Re: Knowledge

Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:15 pm
by Martin_
A different aspect of knowing is that it's never absolute. YOU (the knower) decides whether to treat a specific concept "the concept of there being a cat in the box" as true or not. There's always probability that you're wrong; but for practical purposes , In order to get anywhere in life, you will decide "I know there is a cat in the box". And take it from there.

So, knowledge is a segment on a spectrum:

Code: Select all

I have no idea whether                                                     	I'm convinced there's
there's a cat in the box                                                      	a cat in the box
  |                                                                 		    		|
  |                                                                 I beleive there's 		|        I know there's
  |                                                                  a cat in the box		|       a cat in the box
  V                                                                          V			V              V
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------============--=====


Re: Knowledge

Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:29 pm
by Ben Iscatus
So, knowledge is a segment on a spectrum:
I like this idea. As you indicate, the great thing about it is that language can express the subjective expectations - so we could also have such as, "I doubt the cat is in the box" , "I expect the cat is in the box", "I presume the cat is in the box", etc, and linguistically we could arrange the gradations from highly improbable to extremely probable.

Re: Knowledge

Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2021 12:34 pm
by AshvinP
Martin_ wrote: Sun Sep 26, 2021 1:15 pm A different aspect of knowing is that it's never absolute. YOU (the knower) decides whether to treat a specific concept "the concept of there being a cat in the box" as true or not. There's always probability that you're wrong; but for practical purposes , In order to get anywhere in life, you will decide "I know there is a cat in the box". And take it from there.

So, knowledge is a segment on a spectrum:

Code: Select all

I have no idea whether                                                     	I'm convinced there's
there's a cat in the box                                                      	a cat in the box
  |                                                                 		    		|
  |                                                                 I beleive there's 		|        I know there's
  |                                                                  a cat in the box		|       a cat in the box
  V                                                                          V			V              V
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------============--=====

Martin,

I start discussing this question of "absolute" knowledge in a new essay (What do I Know) on general forum. So if someone asks, "is there a Sun who provides you warmth and light?", we would have to say "I feel those things, but I can't know it for certain... maybe those feelings are generated by a computer chip in my brain which has little to do with what I call the Sun, who knows". But what is undoubtable in this manner is the "I" who is doubting. The "I" is certain. If we think on it, we see we cannot even formulate an answer to any question without presupposing the "I", and likewise we cannot have a desire, feeling, or thought without presupposing it. All of this is pretty obvious to the average Westerner who went to grade school and heard about Descartes (that is, until much more recently when people have intellectually rationalized away the "I" against all odds). The real question is whether this certainty in the "I" can be leveraged into more certain knowledge of the world. It's hard for us to imagine how this could happen now, since there is very little depth of Thinking, i.e. Thinking about thinking. Our thoughts simply move horizontally and such chains of thoughts will always remain a loose foundation for knowledge... one small doubt in a chain link and the whole thing falls to ruins. That is why the vertical thoughts enriched by depth are the only conceivable solution to this knowing problem. That only comes from this same "I" who is self-positing and can infinitely morph to view itself. People do not like this word "only", but it's simply an expression of logic - no other possibility presents itself us in a logically coherent manner. Anyway, I hope to show more of why and how this is possible in Part B of the essay.