Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!utegc!utai!cbo 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------