You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Sam26

Comments

The problem with your account is that it tries to dismiss epistemology while simultaneously advancing an epistemological thesis. To say that “truth is...
October 04, 2025 at 06:38
That claim is self-contradictory under the way I’m defining these terms. Absolute certainty means knowledge held with 100% confidence, without the pos...
October 02, 2025 at 21:55
Much of our knowledge comes through testimony (books, lectures, person-to-person, etc). Testimony is often undervalued and misunderstood. Every area o...
October 02, 2025 at 16:55
Family Resemblances and the Grammar of Knowledge If one lesson can be taken from Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, it is that the search for an essence...
September 30, 2025 at 21:05
If I say “I know how you feel because I too have lost a parent”, then the structure does fit JTB: Truth: it is true that I have felt grief of that sor...
September 30, 2025 at 00:44
It may be objected that nothing truly novel is added by the ‘+U.’ Some have held that unless a person grasps the concepts at work, their justification...
September 28, 2025 at 11:59
If this is what you think I'm doing, then you haven't understood anything I've said. My impression @"frank" is that you haven't read my posts in the l...
September 28, 2025 at 11:21
If knowledge is just confidence in one's belief, then one's confidence/conviction that one knows would suffice, that can't be correct. Sure, we can be...
September 28, 2025 at 01:10
It makes sense to say the man thinks he knows, but he doesn’t. This is something we see all the time: people confuse what they believe with what they ...
September 28, 2025 at 00:35
For JTB+U to be viable as a framework, it has to work more often than not. If the framework only rarely connected belief with truth, it would collapse...
September 27, 2025 at 15:20
That is the way some pushback on this idea, but I think the apparent arbitrariness disappears once we distinguish between (a) the framework for knowle...
September 27, 2025 at 15:10
That question rests on a misunderstanding of what knowledge is. It assumes that unless I can be sure of my beliefs in the sense of absolute, indubitab...
September 27, 2025 at 14:33
On the first point: understanding is not the same as justification. Justification is the giving of reasons that satisfy the standards of a language-ga...
September 27, 2025 at 00:12
My system fixes the regression problem. I said that "there are periods of regression," just as there are periods where one thinks that a particular co...
September 25, 2025 at 13:53
I agree that narratives of inevitable progress, whether Enlightenment or later, tend to oversimplify. Knowledge does not advance in a straight line. T...
September 24, 2025 at 21:04
By the way, I've finished my first book, and I'm starting my second book called "Why Christianity Fails (Weak Testimony, Fragile Evidence, and the Col...
September 24, 2025 at 20:23
On my account, moral knowledge is possible in the same way any knowledge is possible: it requires truth, belief, justification, and understanding, sit...
September 24, 2025 at 20:10
When Wittgenstein uses “know” epistemically, his examples remain squarely within the orbit of what the tradition would call justified true belief. He ...
September 24, 2025 at 19:42
The craving for generality: Wittgenstein warned against the philosopher’s temptation to seek a single formula that captures the essence of every case....
September 24, 2025 at 19:32
Bridge: From JTB+U to Hinges Even with justification clarified and understanding secured, the model of JTB+U does not by itself remove the regress pro...
September 24, 2025 at 19:16
Continuing the Explanation of JTB+U To extend the picture, I need to clarify what the “+U” adds, how justification itself must be situated in language...
September 24, 2025 at 16:25
My account of JTB+U is not the same as traditional JTB, it's more refined using Wittgenstein's methods from his later thinking. I'll partly sum it up ...
September 24, 2025 at 15:16
There are uses of know that don't fit the JTB account, but I would maintain they're not epistemic uses. Are you saying that there are epistemic uses t...
September 12, 2025 at 22:52
And yet today it is common to hear people speak as though knowledge is simply whatever they take knowledge to be. To put it more sharply: many equate ...
September 12, 2025 at 16:00
Another important aspect of this epistemology comes from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: knowledge is not something we locate inwardly, a...
September 12, 2025 at 14:09
I don’t think I can overestimate how important epistemology is in evaluating beliefs and systems of belief, especially in our modern society where we’...
September 12, 2025 at 13:18
I would put it this way: the real issue lies in how we understand justification. It is more than simply a person thinking they are justified. Genuine ...
September 12, 2025 at 13:12
I'm going to repeat my position on Gettier because people seem to think it has weight. The so-called “Gettier problem” rests on a sleight of hand. It ...
September 12, 2025 at 13:06
To be honest I'm not sure I would agree with my point back then. I'd have to give it more thought. I do appreciate that at least you were trying to re...
September 12, 2025 at 11:35
Wow, you went back a bit to find that. I would phrase that a bit differently now, but it's off the main topic, which is an epistemology following Witt...
September 12, 2025 at 11:29
What Is Knowledge? A Clear Explanation In my view, knowledge is more than just a correct guess or a strong feeling. I define it using a framework call...
September 12, 2025 at 11:23
I don’t really see a problem here. First, most of our knowledge is probabilistic, so if new evidence comes into the picture, it overturns what we beli...
September 12, 2025 at 10:52
What On Certainty Can Teach Us About AI When I read Wittgenstein’s On Certainty, I can’t help but think about how it touches on questions we’re now fa...
September 12, 2025 at 00:51
We can doubt many things. I can doubt whether my watch is accurate, whether a friend has told the truth, or whether tomorrow’s forecast will hold. The...
September 12, 2025 at 00:41
I want to thank everyone who responded to this thread. It lasted 8 years, and this is my last post. Thanks again.
September 03, 2025 at 19:12
I think this thread is finally coming to a close.
September 03, 2025 at 18:49
Anyone who wants a free copy of my book when it comes out, let me know.
September 03, 2025 at 17:46
:up:
September 03, 2025 at 17:45
What you don't understand is that I don't care whether others take me seriously. If I cared about being taken seriously, I wouldn't have posted in thi...
September 03, 2025 at 17:14
I could write it out, but my argument doesn't depend on this Bayesian framework. Most people won't understand it anyway. What I think is funny is that...
September 03, 2025 at 16:48
No, it's just a quote about what the patient was claiming. Good questions, I appreciate that. Let's unpack these one by one, because while they sound ...
September 03, 2025 at 16:44
Based on my inductive argument and evidential foundation in Chapter 3 of my book, we can derive a rough probabilistic estimate for the survival of con...
September 03, 2025 at 16:17
But that's the whole point: It's questioning those paradigms. It's challenging what you believe you know, which is why I emphasize epistemology.
September 03, 2025 at 15:56
In Gaming Definition: Any character in a game world not controlled by a human player. Control: Their actions, dialogue, and behavior are scripted or d...
September 03, 2025 at 08:48
Of course, the NPC hypothesis is just speculative, but if we are living in a kind of simulation, which I believe, then it's certainly within the realm...
September 03, 2025 at 01:54
At least you can be funny. That gave me a laugh.
September 03, 2025 at 01:39
My book will probably be released in about six to eight weeks. It's much more detailed, and it's unique in that I look at the evidence from an epistem...
September 03, 2025 at 01:22
If the probability is, say, 50/50, I would agree, but the probability is high based on the evidence. Most of our knowledge is probabilistic, but we do...
September 03, 2025 at 01:01
The following is a summary of the argument in my book. Inductive Argument for the Survival of Consciousness This argument proceeds inductively, drawin...
September 03, 2025 at 00:26
Those of you lurking in the shadows, popcorn in hand, let's cut through the noise for a second. You've been watching this back-and-forth, and if you'r...
September 03, 2025 at 00:08