God alone knows that we are having this conversation? Or any of the myriad related things that are also true? I don't think so. Nor do you, judging by your behaviour.Banno Sure, truth, and God alone knows it, But how do you know it? — tim wood
These definitions are obviously circular.By two truths I mean that which functions in your "culture" or society as truth, and the unattainable truth you seem to be referencing. — tim wood
Babylonians, Hittites, the people next door, Samis, Eskimos, your great-great-grandchildren... — tim wood
Then what(ever) you call true or a truth is simply a belief on your part? I would opine that you know very well what is true, and the difference between a truth and a belief. But you apparently want your "trues" to be universally and across all worlds true. I merely ask how you can understand such a thing claimed, to be the thing you claim it to be. — tim wood
Your point about the difference between my knowing I have a headache, and your knowing I have a headache, is most important. — Banno
Then what(ever) you call true or a truth is simply a belief on your part? I would opine that you know very well what is true, and the difference between a truth and a belief. But you apparently want your "trues" to be universally and across all worlds true. I merely ask how you can understand such a thing claimed, to be the thing you claim it to be.
— tim wood
This is very unclear. Are you suggesting that we should not think that the things we believe, are true? That would mean believing things we believe are false... — Banno
...but on that basis alone by itself you do not take them as true, do you? — tim wood
It seems to me you have two overlapping understandings of what true is. First, there are the things you are satisfied are true. Second, I infer that you suppose that there is intrinsic to the world a state of affairs that when expressed, that expression of that state of affairs must be true. — tim wood
But you operate (it seems to me) with a third: that your truth can stand as an expression of the intrinsic state of affairs of the world, and thus is universally true. — tim wood
Are you not drawing a distinction between knowledge and certainty here? — Hanover
just think the counterexample you provide in this OP is of a different category and not really an attack on the proposition that all knowledge is obtainable through the scientific method. — Hanover
One's own phenomenal state ought be checked against the phenomenal states of others; do they see what I see?
— Banno
That's not commonly done. I don't need verification of whether I see this computer before me or whether I have a headache. — Hanover
Reason is observing reality and then applying logic to make sense of your observations. — AppLeo
How do you know that what you observe is the truth? — Banno
So is it consciousness that allows you to know the truth, not observation and logic.Because I have consciousness that allows me to know the truth. Because I have a mind that can think about what I have observed. — AppLeo
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