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Weekly Photo #24: Arch March 31, 2007

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Arch
This week’s photo, titled “Arch”, is of… an arch. This is another snippet of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, which has popped up before as the weekly photo here.

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False Knowledge? March 29, 2007

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Over in the comments to my post on knowledge, Rhino referred me to “The Analysis of Knowledge” over at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

All in all, very interesting reading — so, thanks, Rhino!

However, I found myself disagreeing somewhat with the initial part:

“Condition (i), the truth condition [S knows that p iff p is true --oc], has not generated any significant degree of discussion. It is overwhelmingly clear that what is false cannot be known. For example, it is false that G. E. Moore is the author of Sense and Sensibilia. Since it is false, it is not the sort of thing anybody can know.”

First off, I must admit that I found it hard to believe that a bunch of philosophers have never gotten around to arguing about that one.

Secondly, I wonder how it can be “overwhelmingly clear” that someone can’t know something that is false? After all, how do we determine what is not false? (Yes, I’m still arguing for my position…)

I’ll drag the wall example back into it: 100 people looking at a wall on a lawn. They all agree that the grassy lawn is green, and the sky is blue. They don’t agree on the color of the wall. How do we determine what color the wall is (not what wavelength of light, but what color)? What can we say about the differing groups’ knowledge of that color? If the split between groups is 1 / 99? 30 / 70? 50 / 50? If it’s a 50 / 50 split, how are we justified in saying that one group knows what color the wall is, and the other group does not?

Really, if your name isn’t Rhino, it’s still okay to comment. I don’t have a degree in philosophy, either, and I’m willing to talk about this stuff.

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(Mal)Adaptive? March 26, 2007

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Over at ScienceBlogs, two posts up in response to this comment about religion from Alan MacNeill (as part of an intro to a seminar):

“To an evolutionary biologist, such pan-specificity combined with continuous variation strongly suggests that one is dealing with an evolutionary adaptation.”

First, a response at Pharyngula.

Second, at Gene Expression.

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Weekly Photo #23: Junction March 24, 2007

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Junction.jpg
This week’s photo is almost a year old. It’s the mostly famous Bixby Bridge, on the Big Sur coast and about an hour’s drive from my house, if you take your time. Which you should, if you’re driving on the Big Sur coast.Why’s the photo called “Junction”? Well, I’ll leave that one as an exercise for the reader.

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I Know What I Know — I Think March 23, 2007

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A recent “proof of god” post in the forums makes the following two assertions about knowledge:

“A fundamental principle about knowledge is that it is always the product of the mind of a rational being. Another fundamental priciple is a mind can only receive knowledge from another mind.”

Which I agree with generally, with an alteration to the plural and some quibbling over details:

A fundamental principle about knowledge is that it is always the product of the minds of rational beings. Another fundamental principle is a mind can only receive knowledge from other minds.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “What the fuck is he on about?” A reasonable question, indeed.

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A Good Reason For Open Access March 22, 2007

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Via Greg Mankiw’s Blog, I’ve read an article over at Slate that mentions that

“English economist Andrew Oswald has shown that across European countries, and across U.S. states, high levels of home ownership are correlated with high levels of unemployment.”

Which is a very interesting correlation. And, thanks to a link in the article to Dr Oswal’s page and a little open-access posting of his papers, we can look at what he himself has to say about it, for example here.

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Weekly Photo #22: Ilyich March 16, 2007

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Ilyich (edited)
This week’s photo is titled “Ilyich” — and it is, of course, a picture of Lenin’s Tomb that I took several years ago. I’ve also edited the photo to remove a person and, if I recall correctly, a dog. They were blocking the view. While I’ve strolled around Red Square plenty of times, I’ve never gone inside the mausoleum, and I really don’t have a desire to. I guess I’m just not that interested in wax museums.

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Surrendering Rights March 13, 2007

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On a thread in the forums, the following was said when discussing lawbreaking:

“When people break the law they automatically give up certain rights, like the right not to be incarcerated.”

Now, it’s not important which thread or who said it, because it’s a common idea and I’m not picking a fight with a particular person. Instead, I want to take a look at this assertion, because I don’t agree with it.

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Quarterly, Schmuarterly March 12, 2007

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Although this week’s Economist contained its “Technology Quarterly”, I found the “Science and Technology” section much more intriguing. The lead story involves possible early signs of the Higgs Boson, with a related box about particle smashers. And there’s a great read about avian racketeering.

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