From: Dan Fabulich (dfabulich@warpmail.net)
Date: Sun Sep 01 2002 - 00:50:41 MDT
Damien Broderick wrote:
> At 09:16 PM 8/31/02 -0700, Lee wrote:
>
> >1. Do you believe that there is a big hot ball of gas
> > about 8 light minutes from the Earth that we call
> > "the sun"?
>
> >(And I dearly pray that this can be answered with a simple
> >"yes" or "no"
>
> Too bad. Do I `believe' this assertion? Not exactly; a belief is a
> conviction derived from confidence in another person's report
> unsubstantiated in one's own direct experience. Do I `know' that it's true?
> Not in the sense that I surely know the light coming from the small flat
> circle up there is very bright and hurts my eyes if I gaze at it too long.
> But in an extended sense of `know', drawing upon my education, I do indeed
> know that the Sun is a big hot ball of gas about which our spherical world
> orbits. Had I lived a thousand years ago, I would have `known' in exactly
> the same sense that the Sun is a small bright flaming ball which orbits
> about our flat world.
Damien, you know darn well in which sense he meant the word "know." He
meant it in *our* sense. Furthermore, our sense is *different* from the
medieval sense. (Isn't it? That's the whole point, right? Exploring
different cultures and different senses?)
> >2. If the answer to the first question is "yes", then I
> > announce to the world that from now on my statements
> > about the sun are to be *taken* as referring to that
> > ball of gas, and *not* any possibly weird thing going
> > on in people's brains.
>
> Obviously it's neither, except in shorthand.
Whot, yo mean, like, common spoken English? ;) What language did you
*think* he was using? ;)
For that matter, what language are YOU using? From whose frame of
reference is it supposed to be the case that you could "know" that the
Earth is spherical and "know" that the Earth is flat? The middle
ages? No... The modern era? No... So where then? Which culture is
it that licenses this sort of talk? Or are you just making it up as
you go along...? :)
-Dan
-unless you love someone-
-nothing else makes any sense-
e.e. cummings
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