Re: Knowledge and Belief

[John Cowan <cowan@locke.ccil.org>]

la rab. zuk. cusku di'e

> I'm not sure were talking about the same thing when I say system
> and you say truth model.

Indeed, I think that by "system" you mean something like a database
of what you currently believe, more or less what I call one's
belief structure.  By "worldview" or "metaphysics", though, I mean
something less variable: the means or system of means by which one
acquires beliefs.  Appropriate values are things like "the
hypothetico-deductive method", "deduction from axiom schema S"
"divine revelation from god G", "hearsay", "the authority of A",
etc.

> However, neither of them equal actuality
> only approximate it.

Doubtless.  But what is it that they approximate?  Why,
"nunfatci".

> People at a certain time knew the Sun circled the
> earth, and unconsciously adjusted their incoming information to fit
> that model.

No adjustment needed: the Tychonian and Keplerian models are
observationally equivalent (anyhow, both the Earth and the
Sun perform ellipses around the center of mass of the system).

> So for them, the sun _did_ circle the earth. Whether or not the Sun
> actually an observer from our time would agree, seems irrelavent
> because we cannot prove it now one way or another. Admittedly, it
> makes things much more consistant with current understanding of
> psychology to think that the Earth really did circle the Sun, and
> they just make a mistake.

And this is the difference between a time-dependent worldview,
which changes as you learn new things, and a "methodological"
worldview which changes only when you accept new *kinds* of evidence.
(For example, if I were to become a Christian, my worldview would
probably change to accept certain "revealed truths" which I now
label either false or of unknown truth value.)

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (FW 16.5)