It's thought-provoking to me because it makes me ask what it really means to know or be certain about something and I've never been able to quite answer this for myself. There have been plenty of times in my life when I've felt absolutely certain about something only to have been proven wrong.Pattern-chaser wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 12:50 pmIt is? In what way do you think it's thought-provoking? And do you have any thoughts as to why it "is not much more widely known and accepted"? I'm not challenging what you've written, but only looking for some expansion of your opinions.Thomyum2 wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 12:40 pmIt's a very thought-provoking idea here.Pattern-chaser wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 12:24 pmPattern-chaser wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 8:31 am The amount of certain knowledge around is pretty limited: I exist; Objective Reality exists, and I am all or part of it. Each of us can say this and no more. There is no other Objective Knowledge that we can knowingly (i.e. not by accident or coincidence) possess.Thanks. It remains a mystery to me that this is not much more widely known and accepted. Perhaps it's just too scary to admit so clearly how little we really know?chewybrian wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 9:38 am This should be a sticky at the top of every page. This is the foundation of real philosophy, and the only statement we can make while also claiming to know it is true. Everything else is argument about beliefs. Some have more foundation than others, but all are beliefs, no matter how we state them or how strongly we believe.
I guess this has led me to feel that when we say such things as 'I know' or 'I am certain' or 'it is well known', we're expressing something more about our internal state of confidence with the subject being discussed, or our perceived ability to demonstrate knowledge through the performance of certain tasks (e.g. the ability to answer certain questions on a test in accordance with a certain set of right or wrong answers) than we are about the actual truth or falsehood of the information itself.
It probably deserves its own separate thread but I'm not sure where I'd start the conversation.