karl@dartvax.UUCP (S. Delage.) (07/26/84)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sci,net.misc Subject: ``Knowing'' vs. knowing. References: brl-vgr.507 <569@ihuxj.UUCP>, <93@mouton.UUCP>, <1135@rti-sel.UUCP> <3328@brl-tgr.ARPA> <1556@sun.uuRe: Mind and Brain <252@scc.UUCP> Mr. Steiny is putting quotation marks around the word "know", in the sentence, ``A better way to state what we "know" about the motions of the sun and the earth is...'' in reference to the preceding statement, ``We know now that the earth goes around the sun.'' I am prepared to say that ``I know that the earth goes around the sun.'', and I think that many other people are as well. The quotation marks seem to signify that we don't ``really know it'', we only seem to know it. I admit that I haven't stood on Alpha Centuari wth my [very] high-powered telescope and seen the relative motions of the earth and the sun, but the statement ``I know that the earth goes around the sun.'' still seems reasonable. Although this is not particularly related to the main point of Mr. Steiny's article, the quotation marks seemed oddly out of place. karl@dartmouth -- dartvax!karl