Annoyance comments on Supernatural Math - Less Wrong

1 Post author: saturn 19 May 2009 11:31AM

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Comment author: Annoyance 20 May 2009 02:38:23PM 0 points [-]

I'm sorry, but I don't think that you understand.

The fact that you reach a conclusion does not force the universe to conform to your conclusion. It may be perfectly obvious to you that 2+2=4, just as it was perfectly obvious to the Greeks that Euclid's Fifth Axiom was true or that there was universal time was clear to Newton. Nevertheless, they were wrong, as you may be wrong.

jBelief is not conviction. Conviction is not knowledge. Knowledge isn't truth.

Comment author: thomblake 20 May 2009 08:32:26PM 1 point [-]

Knowledge isn't truth.

That seems at best trivially true, in that "knowledge is truth" seems to be committing a category mistake. A common-enough epistemological position is that knowledge is about true propositions.

More specifically, many in epistemology will define knowledge as "justified true belief". So by this way of thinking, if "S knows X" is true, then X is true.

Comment author: Alicorn 20 May 2009 08:42:33PM *  1 point [-]

Nobody defines knowledge simply as justified true belief anymore. Everybody needs a workaround for Gettier cases.

Comment author: thomblake 20 May 2009 08:58:47PM 0 points [-]

Well, while I agree with your sentiment, surely your statement is technically false. Indeed, one way to get around Gettier cases is to simply make "justified" a more difficult credential to obtain (not that I think that's a good solution).

Also, many philosophers no longer think definitions need to specify necessary or sufficient conditions, and so would happily claim 'justified true belief' is a 'good enough' definition of knowledge.

Comment author: Alicorn 20 May 2009 10:04:47PM 0 points [-]

I'm probably overgeneralizing from the professors I've had. Your point is well taken.

Comment author: byrnema 20 May 2009 08:15:13PM 0 points [-]

Do you believe in truth, in general, at all? If so, how do humans experience truth?