dr_who@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/07/83)
Response to Tom Craver on Larry Cipriani's objection: Although I'm not sure Tom and I really disagree on this, I do sympathize with Larry's claim that nothing is gained by adding context to knowledge. Tom claims that it helps us to justify actions against the question, "are you sure you're right?" It is a complex question (because it involves the question of what it means to call an action right), but I think that a contextual *definition* of knowledge can't help us justify actions. I think that an action is right if it was done for the right goals, and the agent acted on the best evidence available to him about how to achieve the goals, regardless of whether he *knew* what the best way to achieve the goals were. We need not claim knowledge to claim justified action. I still think that the role proposed for knowledge-defined-contextually can be fulfilled adequately by the concept "best justified belief." --Paul Torek, U of MD College Park
rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (08/10/83)
This is too short to submit to net.philosophy. Sorry. In Heidegger's 'Being and Time,' he has quite a bit to say about context and meaning and all the things that are involved. Read it. -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins) genrad!mit-eddie!rh or... rh@mit-ee (via mit-mc)
dr_who@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/15/83)
OK, so the contextual definition of knowledge is not aimed at justifying actions. Then what IS it aimed at? Apparently, at justifying the claim to "really know" things. But this amounts to applying one label rather than another. A rose, by any other name ... Calling contextual knowledge "knowledge" may be a psychological comfort, but that's all. It doesn't tell when we are justified in holding a belief, or when we can be sure that the belief will stand up to further testing. It just tells when we can apply a certain label. And Shakespeare had the last word on applying labels. --Paul Torek, U of MD College Park
myers@uwvax.ARPA (Jeff Myers) (08/21/83)
"knowledge-defined-contextually" == "best justified belief" Sounds like the MLE (Maximum Likelihood Estimator) of epistemology. :-) Jeff myers@uwvax P.S. How does one define a 'fact' outside of its context?!