[lit-ideas] Re: What Every School Boy Knows
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 13:39:41 EDT
In a message dated 5/29/2010 9:53:40 A.M., donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx
writes:
The sleight-of-hand is that we do not ordinarily use the verb "knew" in
the first-person when referring back to some knowledge we now know to be
false: we would tend to use "I thought..", "I believed.." etc. This usage
avoids the confusion that might arise if it seemed we were saying that we
"knew
correctly" something we now recognise as false: a confusion liable to arise
because of the two very different senses in which we may claim to "know",
only one of which has connotations of justified true belief.
---
Thanks. I should revise Plato on 'circle'. I KNOW I posted the thing to
CLASSICS-L, so I may search the files. It combines with what Grice says about
'circle' and 'knowledge' (in WoW, 'Meaning Revisited').
Re McEvoy's above, it seems to incorporate Grice's worst nightmare!
--- Grice coined "Modified Occam Razor": "Senses should not be multiplied
beyond necessity". Surely McEvoy's is an unnecessary multiplication of the
sense of 'know', especially when you can explain the oddity of "I knew that
my granny was there, but I was wrong" by pointing that the utterer is
STUPID.
--- To accept ONE Sense of 'know' and ANOTHER sense of "Know" is enough to
give Grice a heart attack. And to add Tense Variability: "One thing is the
sense of 'know'; another a sense of "knew"" would give him ANOTHER heart
attack, if that were possible (i.e. on the basis that he may have survived
the FIRST one). Etc.
---
JL Speranza, Bordgihera
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
