Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 16:48:18 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801162148.QAA00589@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Re: Knowledge and belief X-To: sbelknap@uic.edu X-cc: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan X-UIDL: ec1351107184540db1ae5ffb0bae6491 Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 816 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Jan 20 09:44:38 1998 X-From-Space-Address: - >>Einstein knew that the 3 Newtonian Laws of motion are false. > >Einstein specifically denied knowing that his theory was "true" in his >statement that "No experiment can prove my theory true, but one experiment >could prove it false. If you bar the philosphy of science issue, you >obviate any basis for rational discussion of this example. That is why I confined the example to Newton's Laws and said that Einstein knew that they were FALSE. There were, I believe, experimental confirmations of Einsteinian theory that also thereby disproved Newtonian physics, while Einstein was yet alive. Newton lived in a time before the philosophizing of science had ruled out the "knowing" of scientific fact. By the standards of his century, he almsot certainly could have claimed to "know" his laws were true. lojbab