[lit-ideas] Re: Can You Imagine 2 + 2 = 5?
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: palma@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:30:18 -0330
I don't think W. believed certainty to be a scalar, qualitative sort of thing
(state of mind, or better, disposition). So in your rendering, your claim takes
the form of an empirical belief. Such beliefs are uncontentiously often the
ground of action or inaction. (Eg: You won't begin construction of a spaceship
in order to visit your brother on Venus.)
But W's idea that certainty, expressed through what he called "hinge" or
"riverbed" propositions, is non-epistemic and founds action is different. They
are not open to rational doubt or justification, yet are required by the
practices and actions we engage in. I think that's right. From here on in it
gets murky.
Walter O.
MUN
Quoting palma@xxxxxxxx:
> this is traditional behavioristic mumbo jumbo.
> I am rather, even quite, certain that I do not have siblings on Venus.
> Now this the ground of which action, pray tell?
>
>
> On
> Tue, 20 Nov 2007
> wokshevs@xxxxxx wrote:
>
> > The distinction between certainty and knowledge is indeed an interesting
> one.
> > Wittgenstein spent a considerable amount of time in Cambridge and at
> Malcolm's
> > house in [insert the correct American city] trying to show that Moore's
> > hand-waving proved nothing. Hence, Moore's "proof of an external world"
> was
> > unsuccessful. What has emerged as *On Certainty* claims that certainty is
> not
> > an epistemic concept. To be "certain" is not to have knowledge of any kind
> - be
> > it propositional or procedural. Rather, "certainty" is a ground of action.
> >
> > Walter O.
> > MUN
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Quoting "Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx" <ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> >
> > > This whole conversation plays really strangely if you watched Nineteen-
> > > eighty-four last night.
> > >
> > > ----Original Message----
> > > From: andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Date: Nov 20, 2007 11:52
> > > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Can You Imagine 2 + 2 = 5?
> > >
> > > >> Can you _know_ that 2 + 2 = 5?
> > >
> > > Certainly. I've seen people "clearly know" (not just imagine) an
> > > incorrect
> > > number.
> > >
> > > yrs,
> > > andreas
> > > www.andreas.com
> > >
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