From: Kevin (kevin@xap.com)
Date: Tue Jan 14 2003 - 22:40:33 GMT
Erin struggles with an obscure and questionable analogy:
okay with the pooka example (never saw it so not sure
if I am remembering this scenario right),
truth=== whether the rabbit existed or not
knowledge == awareness of the the truth of this existence
(correspondence of opinion to truth)
opinion== 2 say yes vs lots say no
(Opinions are like a-holes everybody has one.)
Knowledge is a continuum (not true to true) where opinions seem to fall
on a range. Where they fall is not about how many people have that
opinion but how truthful it is?
Kevin:
Again, I would say that there is not direct relationship between
knowledge and truth. They are very different things.
Truth is a property of sentences.
Knowlegde is a property of agreement.
Sentences do not become truer simply because more people say them. They
just become more commonly known.
The Harvey example is an my attempt to illustrate how truth can be
relative because it depends on experience. Is Harvey not real because
you haven't seen him? Can we accept Harvey as real based on the witness
of Elwood and Dr. Chumley? Does what we think about Elwood (or Dr.
Chumley) change our opinion about the existence of Harvey?
Do people not believe in Harvey because they don't believe Elwood is
telling the truth? Or is it because they do not have a worldview that
could account for the existence of pookas? That is, had they already
made up their minds about the "truth" and no facts were going to change
their minds? To them, seeing Harvey is not proof of his existence, it's
proof of madness because pookas don't exist.
Now this is what I had in mind when I submitted it. Matt seems to have
had a very positive reaction to the analogy (the degree of which
surprised and delighted me), but it's possible the analogy had some
other meaning to him which would account for his enthusiam for it. If
so, I would hope he'd shar it with us.
-Kevin
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