Subject: Re: [lojban] Knowledge (was: Random lojban questions/annoyances

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 01:55:24

la xod cusku di'e

>"Belief" is a fact, regardless of the truth of the statement. "Know",
>however, is relative to the beliefs of the speaker.

Not really of just the speaker, it is rather relative to the beliefs
of the evaluator of the sentence. But that happens with every single
sentence. The speaker is of course the first evaluator of their own
sentence, but anyone else evaluating the sentence will not
be bound by the speaker's beliefs. If John says "Paul knows
that Dave lives in Australia", then my evaluation of the
truth value of the sentence does not depend on John's beliefs,
only on my knowledge of the facts about Dave living in Australia,
and about Paul's beliefs on the subject (and a couple other
things). If I have no such knowledge, I can't evaluate the truth
value of the sentence. I can always take John's word for it,
of course.

>If I, like Steve,
>think you are a Koala Bear, I validate his belief by saying "Steve knows
>are you a Koala bear.". But if I don't agree with Steve, I downgrade his
>belief from the level of knowledge, and say "Steve believes you are a
>Koala bear.".

Right.

>Hence, the English "know" reflects the beliefs of every speaker that
>transmits the fact.

So does the phrase "it is true that ..."

>Do we want this rather strange, intransitive (?)
>behavior in Lojban too?

Why strange?

co'o mi'e xorxes

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