Re: Knowledge vs. Belief LO2624

Bruce_Viney@europe.notes.pw.com
Wed, 30 Aug 95 08:55:22 GMT

Replying to LO2612 --

John

All you are in effect saying is that there are no certainties in life,
only degress of probability, an idea which is as old as philosophy. For
instance, we 'know' that the sun will rise tomorrow only because it always
has done so in our lifetime - it is therefore highly probable that it will
rise again tomorrow. We 'know' that we will each eventually die because
all others before us have died - therefore it is highly probable that we
will ourselves die.

Acknowledging that we can only deal in degrees of probability is
interesting but in the end changes little, particularly at the extremes of
probability. If it serves any useful function it would be in encouraging
us to challenge our assumptions more closely.

What does James Hoopes bring to this subject? The concept of knowledge
versus belief is apparently no different from the concept that there are
no certainties. Of course it does depend on what you mean by
depersonalised.

I look forward to discussing this further.

Bruce

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From: Bruce_Viney@europe.notes.pw.com