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donathos on 13 April 2009
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appolose said:
donathos said:
appolose said:

donathos said:

For any given belief, how are you aware of the origin of that belief?

 

Being ‘gifted’ some absolute knowledge about the world doesn’t necessarily imply one also knows where it came from. A person simply can’t claim any absolute knowledge he has came from his own abilities (rationalism, empiricism, whatever) as the meaning of them in our mind confesses otherwise. Whereas, the meaning of revelation in our mind works as an answer to epistemology (a question also in our mind, if I needed to specify that).

All right, so here's the thing: if I understand you correctly, there is "absolute knowledge" that comes from Outside One's Own Abilities (revelation, God, what-have-you) and then there's also, uh... "fallible knowledge" that comes from one's own abilities (rationalism, empiricism, whatever).

But, if "being 'gifted' some absolute knowledge about the world doesn't necessarily imply one also knows where it came from," then how do I know, for any given piece of knowledge, if it's in the "absolute knowledge" camp, or the "fallible knowledge" camp?  Because, in order to know which it is, I would have to know where it came from, correct?  (Because the source is actually what determines what it is.)

So, for instance, if I believe that I know that the sky is blue, but I don't know where that knowledge comes from... then how do I know if it's absolute, or fallible?  Or, when I think I know that x = x, same question--if I don't know the source of that knowledge, how can I tell if it's absolute?

   I getcha. I suspect most people (take it or leave it) who absolutely believe that the sky is blue will also “absolutely believe” they got this from looking at sense data or saying that it’s some “logical belief”. Well, they’d have a problem then as those methods confess otherwise.

 

   If a person merely says he has absolute knowledge that the sky is blue and doesn’t “absolutely know” this comes from such intrinsically impossible methods… well then there's no problem and maybe he does know the sky is blue.

   I only say ‘maybe’ cause I’m not him. As epistemology confines us to our mind alone… it confines me to my mind alone.

 

   Totally unnecessary, Take it or leave it, I suspect many people do not hold many beliefs, unassociated with the aforementioned methods, with the kind of confidence given to ‘absolute’.

Would it be possible for a person to "absolutely believe" that sense data, logic, empricism, etc., are methods by which "absolute knowledge" could be divined?

Is it possible that empiricism, as a method, could be "revealed" to a person as a proper way to come to truth/"legitimate beliefs"/whatever-it-is-we're-calling-it-atm?