[lit-ideas] Re: On Being Misinformed
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 06:54:04 +0000 (GMT)
Found this reply unclear in its import. More importantly, I have just run out
of milk.
--- On Thu, 13/5/10, jlsperanza@xxxxxxx <jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> McEvoy:
> > I know that
> >> "I have wrongly been informed that the capital of
> >> France is Lyon". Ungrammatical.
> > is false.>
>
> Ritchie is right: you MAY THINK you know -- (versus "you
> maybe know it").
So?
> While "know" and "inform" behave similarly, they are not
> the same verb.
Neither is "throw". And?
> "I wrongly knew it" is perhaps MORE ungrammatical than "I
> have been wrongly informed".
Gee thanks. But this assertion hardly establishes why "I have been wrongly
informed" is ungrammatical at all.
> But the problem is that "mis-know" is a solecism (Unlike
> "mis-inform").
Quite*. And where one has been 'mis-informed' one may well have been "wrongly
informed". So that if mis-informed is not a solecism it would seem "wrongly
informed" is not ungrammatical.
I could go on..
Dnl
* No reason "mis-know" must be treated as a solecism any stronger than the
convention of treating "knowing x" as necessarily implying that x is the case
(if x is not the case it is wrong, _according to this convention_, to say we
"know" x rather than merely think we "know"). But even if we accept that
Newton's theory is false, and so are the ancient sky-maps that ships navigated
by, both remain within the body of human "knowledge" - and "knowledge" and
"knowing" may be used in a sense that does not imply the information "known" is
necessarily true.
But even if we accept the convention, the assymetry between knowing and 'being
informed' would remain: for while, according to that convention, we cannot
"know" what is false, there is no reason why therefore we cannot receive
information that is false - as indeed is a common experience.
Yes. I did go on...
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