[lit-ideas] Re: Can You Imagine 2 + 2 = 5?
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:37:05 -0800
Could you fill this out a bit? There's some relation (don't ask me to say
exactly what it is) between knowledge and certainty; but it doesn't follow
from someone's being absolutely certain that x, that x.
Epistemology (the knowing of something) and ontology (the being of
something) aren't the same thing.
But we think they are identical. If I tell you my cat is on the sofa (and
she actually is at the moment asleep on the sofa), you would accept it as
fact. Being becomes knowledge.
And knowledge often turns into being: we know some things and we're able to
postulate, imagine, and create a third thing. It's rather remarkable that we
can do this, and we forget how shaky that can be.
But knowing something doesn't guarantee that it exists. Robert's last
sentence should be (I'm guessing) "...certain that X is known, thus X
exists." We can indeed be utterly certain (not merely imagining or guessing
or illusioned or mistaken) about something, but it still won't exist.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Paul" <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:49 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Can You Imagine 2 + 2 = 5?
Andreas re 2 + 2 = 5
Certainly. I've seen people "clearly know" (not just imagine) an
incorrect number.
Could you fill this out a bit? There's some relation (don't ask me to say
exactly what it is) between knowledge and certainty; but it doesn't follow
from someone's being absolutely certain that x, that x.
Robert Paul
speaking from experience
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