"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge." - Confucius
I wish more people could remember this!
I know next to nothing and so try to avoid any temptation to think otherwise. Unfortunately since
I am human and require some foundational basis for understanding the observable world in which
I exist allow my self the luxury of thinking that some things are more certain than others. And that
those things are actually true. One should how ever always be prepared accept the possibility what
one knows is not actually true. I am just passing through so it does not matter in the grand scheme
of things only in the here and now. Because my brain would dry up if it did not have something to do
Look at things genetically (look at the origin on the human plane) rather than formally (on the Platonic plane). Logic isn't either/or ... except in elementary school ;-) And the reductio ad absurdum is "my brother is bigger than your brother". Rumsfeld was definitive on this ... known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns. That is a 4 state logic, not a 2 state logic. It is necessary to escape the Aristotelian diaper stage ;-)
As an infant, you rely on your parents, who know things but might not know that they know unless they are academic philosophers. As you develop you expand on what you know to replace what has been provided to you pre-digested, as a baby bird might, based on additional authority and based on your own experience. Once you are a teen, you start to break free of your parent's authority (as well as their epistemology). As a young adult, your knowing is based on a broad range of authorities (such as your employer or college professor) and on an ever growing body of digested evidence you got yourself. If you continue to develop from there, as an old person, you enter a second teenage ... and having accumulated a great deal of personal experience, you start rejecting all those other non-parental authorities, in favor of your own ideas ... and you discover that your parents were pretty much right after all, you now having had the benefit of the experience of being a parent yourself. And then just as you achieve some degree of wisdom ... you croke!
Quote from: Baruch on August 19, 2015, 07:00:07 AM
Look at things genetically (look at the origin on the human plane) rather than formally (on the Platonic plane). Logic isn't either/or ... except in elementary school ;-) And the reductio ad absurdum is "my brother is bigger than your brother". Rumsfeld was definitive on this ... known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns. That is a 4 state logic, not a 2 state logic. It is necessary to escape the Aristotelian diaper stage ;-)
As an infant, you rely on your parents, who know things but might not know that they know unless they are academic philosophers. As you develop you expand on what you know to replace what has been provided to you pre-digested, as a baby bird might, based on additional authority and based on your own experience. Once you are a teen, you start to break free of your parent's authority (as well as their epistemology). As a young adult, your knowing is based on a broad range of authorities (such as your employer or college professor) and on an ever growing body of digested evidence you got yourself. If you continue to develop from there, as an old person, you enter a second teenage ... and having accumulated a great deal of personal experience, you start rejecting all those other non-parental authorities, in favor of your own ideas ... and you discover that your parents were pretty much right after all, you now having had the benefit of the experience of being a parent yourself. And then just as you achieve some degree of wisdom ... you croke!
What do you aspire to achieve as a depressing asshole?
Quote from: peacewithoutgod on August 19, 2015, 11:28:09 AM
What do you aspire to achieve as a depressing asshole?
Knock it off. Once he gets over two paragraphs I don't bother reading. Just let it go.
Quote from: hilary on August 19, 2015, 01:45:18 AM
"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it
I actually entirely disagree with this. What things can we really
know? As we learn more about the world around us, we've often proven ourselves wrong. So it would have been a grave oversight to say "We know disease is caused by a toade in the bile of one's stomach and other ill humours" and stopped there. I think the real knowledge comes from knowing that we know nothing, and the things we think we know are just stops along the road to discovery.
Why does the statement in the first post sound like something Cheney has said almost word for word? It's nonsense, like asking what the sound of one hand clapping sounds like.
The only things I purport to know is the obvious.
Quote from: Solitary on August 19, 2015, 12:40:03 PM
Why does the statement in the first post sound like something Cheney has said almost word for word? It's nonsense, like asking what the sound of one hand clapping sounds like.
Confucius was the Cheney of his day just like Lao Tzu was the Stephen Colbert of his day. Lao Tzu was always ridiculing Confucius.
CrucifyCindy - once again, to the head of the class!
Solitary - Confucius was the arch conservative of his day ... because he felt that the changes that were happening in his day, made things worse, not better. He obviously was a reactionary from the 1960s. But I do admire him anyway.
TomFoolery - Once I visited the Athenian Agora, and sought out the spot where Socrates died ... I could swear now, that I saw you there that day.
Aitm - doggies aren't known for their attention span, and no kitty would bother even start reading.
What do I aspire to be? Myself of course. I won't fully know who I am, until the moment before I pass on. But I am thankful to everyone who was helpful in assisting me in my egotistical quest. Though I do hope I have assisted others along the way as well.
I like bewbs and sex and booze. And that concludes the list of things that I claim to know.
Quote from: Johan on August 20, 2015, 06:30:13 AM
I like bewbs and sex and booze. And that concludes the list of things that I claim to know.
Two out of three ain't bad. :)) And I'd add ice cream and baseball to the known likes of this world.