From rlpowell@csclub.uwaterloo.ca Sun Mar 18 19:36:23 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: rlpowell@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca X-Apparently-To: lojban@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_0_4); 19 Mar 2001 03:36:23 -0000 Received: (qmail 95507 invoked from network); 19 Mar 2001 03:36:22 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l9.egroups.com with QMQP; 19 Mar 2001 03:36:22 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca) (129.97.134.11) by mta2 with SMTP; 19 Mar 2001 03:36:22 -0000 Received: (from rlpowell@localhost) by calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) id WAA18885 for lojban@onelist.com; Sun, 18 Mar 2001 22:43:09 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 22:43:09 -0500 To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] Random lojban questions/annoyances. Message-ID: <20010318224308.W3953@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> Mail-Followup-To: lojban@onelist.com References: <20010318153923.B3953@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: ; from cowan@mercury.ccil.org on Sun, Mar 18, 2001 at 08:46:16PM -0500 X-eGroups-From: Robin Lee Powell From: Robin Lee Powell On Sun, Mar 18, 2001 at 08:46:16PM -0500, John Cowan wrote: > Robin Lee Powell scripsit: > > > No, it entails that as far as we know, the Earth is not flat. Knowledge > > is changing all the time. > > True. But when it changes, we deny that what we used to believe was, in fact, > knowledge. "I used to know how to change a spark plug". > > I consider belief and knowledge to be equivalent, because 'the truth' is > > too elusive and always changing for us to ever be _SURE_ something is > > true. > > Surety is not required, only truth. Do we really want a situation > in which A knows that G is a koala, whereas B knows that G is a chimpanzee? Otherwise lack of accurate knowledge results in linguistic invalidity, which I don't find acceptable. > > I can _know_, with absolute certainty, that the sky is purple. I sure > > most people would say that my knowlede is wrong. But if you point a > > colorimiter at the sky, it will in fact come up purple rather than blue. > > 1) Colors are explicitly subjective in Lojban. > > 2) Colorimeters don't work reliably on scattered light; they are meant > to deal with reflected light only. Try pointing one at a rainbow > sometimes. Granted. -Robin -- http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rlpowell/ BTW, I'm male, honest. Information wants to be free. Too bad most of it is crap. --RLP