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From: cbo@utai.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Gerbode's position as Devil's Advocate
Message-ID: <3988@utai.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 07:23:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: utai.3988
Posted: Tue Jul  7 07:23:01 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jul-87 07:11:25 EDT
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 30
Keywords: knowledge belief "paradox of preface"

Sarge Gerbode (sarge@thirdi) writes in (<48@thirdi>:
| To summarize:  As each of us looks at what he knows in his own life, what he
| knows at a particular time is coextensive with what he believes at that time.
| Thus, for an individual at a particular time, knowledge and belief are
| equivalent.  

I dont think so! When I try to do something and fail, I often believe that one 
of my currently held beliefs is false, and is thus reponsible for the failure.
The dilemma, of course, is that I don't know *which* of my beliefs is false,
and since I can't give them all up, I am forced (for the time being at least)
to retain them all. The net result is that I end up believing that what 
I believe and what I know is not coextensive (although of course, I cant
list the extension of either!). To believe anything else would be remarkably
presumptuous, I feel.

		Calvin Bruce Ostrum (cbo@ai.toronto.edu)
		Department of Computer Science
		University of Toronto

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It is a curiousity of the philosophical temperament, this passion for
radical solutions. Do you feel a little twinge in your epistemology?
Absolute scepticism is the thing to try. Has the logic of confirmation
got you down? Probably physics is a fiction. Worried about individuating
objects? Dont let anything in but sets. Nobody has yet suggested that the
way out of the Liar paradox is to give up talking, but I expect it's only
a matter of time. Apparently the rule is: if aspirin doesn't work, try
cutting off your head.
		Jerry Fodor
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