Date:  Mon, 12 Jan 1998 17:07:37 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199801122207.RAA19453@locke.ccil.org>
Reply-To: mark.vines@wholefoods.com
Sender: Lojban list <LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET>
From: Mark Vines <vinesm@wholefoods.com>
Subject:      Re: knowledge and belief
X-To:         LOJBAN@CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU
To: John Cowan <cowan@LOCKE.CCIL.ORG>
In-Reply-To:  "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Jorge_J._Llamb=EDas?=" <jorge@INTERMEDIA.COM.AR>
              "Re: knowledge and belief" (Jan 11,  9:15pm)
X-UIDL: 7cb3dec631ad267e05d55d23e4c5f6e9
X-Mozilla-Status: 0011
Content-Length: 1809
X-From-Space-Date: Tue Jan 13 10:31:19 1998
X-From-Space-Address: -

la xorxes. spuda mi di'e

> la mark cusku di'e

mi spuda la xorxes. di'e

la markl. cmene mi
la mark. cmene lo frica prenu

> > It _often_ happens that a pragmatically minded person will
> > use "know" in English for an assertion, the truth value of
> > which is uncertain.
>
> You mean that the person who said that someone knows X
> will not also think that X is true? Can you give examples?

I mean that many people will say that someone knows X when
they are not sure that X is true.  Examples from English:

  You know you want me, so why not admit it?
    - many sources

  I know you wanna leave me,
  but I refuse to let you go.
    - sung by Marvin Gaye

  It ain't what you don't know that worries me;
  it's what you do know that ain't so.
    - several sources

  All I know is what I read in the papers.
    - Will Rogers

  Everybody knows that O.J. was the killer.
    - many sources

  Everything you know is wrong.
    - Firesign Theatre

  I know it's only rock'n'roll, but I like it.
    - sung by the Rolling Stones

  I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
    - attributed to Socrates

  I am the Master of Balliol College,
  and what I don't know isn't knowledge.
    - anonymous

  Teilhard knew the Piltdown fossil was a fake,
  and may have known who the faker was; but he
  died without revealing what he knew.
    - several sources

In each of these English examples, we remain uncertain
about either the content of the known, &or the accuracy
of that content, &or the truth of the claim that the
content really is known to the person or persons
identified as knowing it.  Despite our uncertainty, we
often use the word "know", or some variant thereof, in
statements like these, at least in English.  Similar
usages probably occur also in other natlangs.

co'omi'e markl.