When I was a sophomore at Berkeley majoring in philosophy I was taking history of philosophy. My TA was a PhD student who had graduated from Harvard. He asked the section, "What does it mean to say that you know something?" I raised my hand and said that it means that you believe it and it's true. He said, "Ah, an Aristotelian!"
--- Frank C. Wimberly 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Tue, Mar 3, 2020, 9:28 AM <thompnicks...@gmail.com> wrote: > Two things, Dave, > > Peirce had actually 4 ways of knowing. Stubbornness, Authority, > Reasonableness, Experience, which he tries to treat with equal respect, but > his heart is obviously with the last. (The Fixation of Belief). You make > me wonder about the relation tween Peirce and that Vedic text. > > > But this begs the most fundamental question raised by your post. What is > knowledge, other than belief, and what is belief other than that upon which > we are prepared to act? There is one member of our group who, very much in > the spirit of William James's altered states, wants to work on aura's He > has a tentative belief in aura's. When through experiment and analysis he > renders that belief "firm", does he then have knowledge. Already he > believes in the possibility of aura's. We know that this is the case > because of the effort he is willing to expend in their demonstration. Does > he have knowledge of the existence of auras? Does he already know that > aura's exist? > > I think problems with the very idea of knowledge lie at the core of this > discussion, and we need some sort of working understanding of what we mean > by it, if we are to precede. > > Nicholas Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology > Clark University > thompnicks...@gmail.com > https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/ > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam <friam-boun...@redfish.com> On Behalf Of Prof David West > Sent: Tuesday, March 3, 2020 1:48 AM > To: friam@redfish.com > Subject: [FRIAM] Acid epistemology - restarting a previous conversation > > Epistemology, loosely speaking, is the “theory of knowing.” What can we > know; how do we know we know it; the difference between knowing that, > knowing how, and knowing about; and, issues of the “truth” of what we know > and/or justifications for thinking we know anything? > > An associated issue concerns how we come to acquire knowledge. Two means > of acquisition are commonly proposed: a priori (independent of experience) > and a posteriori (by experience). > > A Vedic text, Tattirtiya Aranyaka (900-600 BCE), lists four sources of > knowledge, roughly translated as: tradition/scripture, perception, > authority, and reasoning/inference. Of these the fourth and second seem to > map onto a priori and a posteriori. > > Scholasticism — exemplars include Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, and Thomas > Aquinas — was concerned with integrating three of the Vedic sources of > knowledge: tradition/scripture (Christian theology), authority (Aristotle > and Plato), and reasoning/inference. > > Modern epistemology (and Peirce) seems to be concerned with two of the > sources: tradition/scripture (peer reviewed science journals) and > reasoning/inference. > > Claims to "know" something, in a naive sense of know, like "I know that I > am," "I know that I am in love," "I had the most interesting experience at > FriAM just now," mystical visions, kinesthetic “muscle memory,” chi > imbalance, and, of course, hallucinogen induced altered states of > consciousness. > > Is it possible to construct a theory of knowledge that could extend to, > incorporate, a wider range of experience and especially mystical and > psychedelic experience? If it was possible, would it be of value? If > possible and of value, what parameters could be set to limn the resulting > philosophy? > > davew > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/FRIAM-COMIC> > http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC <http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/FRIAM-COMIC> > http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove