Re: Knowledge and belief

[Logical Language Group <lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET>]

>So you say, but that doesn't work for "know". You would not make
>a claim like: "John knows by personal revelation from God that I have
>three children", would you?

I cannot say, since I have no basis of knowing myself what kinds of
revelations John has recieved from God, if any.  But there are some
people with appropraite world views that accept that other people
have knowledge because of their personal revelations from God.
In general, such knowledge is not the kind of thing that can be
easily independently verified, such as how many choldren you have
(hmm, actually that cannot be independently verified - people can
have children and not even know it themselves, if they are of the
male gender and live certain lifestyles).

This independent verificiation thing can have another tricky angle.
If a person claiming to be a psychic says that they "know something"
by means of their psychic powers, for people who do not believe in such
powers, it is not sufficient that the knowledge be true and that the
knower accept that truth. Cowan's 4 point definition also fails>>        A knows
 p iff:
>>                1) A believes p;
>>                2) p is true;
>>                3) if p were false, then A wouldn't believe it;
>>                4) if p were true, then A would believe it.

because we cannot say that A would believe it if p were false, since p
is true.

lojbab