Over the past years, I’ve spent many enjoyable Saturday afternoons participating in Washington, DC’s Cafe Philo group (a face-to-face public philosophy group), and have occasionally participated in its list serv. Over the past couple of days a friend responded to my support of the statement “No statement can be justified,” by asking whether I was: […]
Statements, Beliefs, Justifications, and “the Burden of Proof”
September 2nd, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: Epistemology/Ontology/Value Theory · Knowledge Making
Untrue Knowledge
July 17th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Historically, since Plato, the most frequent definition of knowledge has been Justified True Belief (JTB). Until recently (the 20th century), philosophers believed in a foundation for JTB. The Cartesian Rationalists believed that some beliefs were certain because they were self-evident truths that survived Descartes method of doubt. The empiricists believed that some beliefs were self-evident […]
Tags: Epistemology/Ontology/Value Theory · Knowledge Making
Some Comments on Safe-Fail Experiments
May 30th, 2008 · 7 Comments
This post is about “safe-fail experiments.” The essential idea in safe-fail experiments was expressed well by Dave Snowden in this way: “I can afford them to fail and critically, I plan them so that through that failure I learn more about the terrain through which I wish to travel.”
And again, in another place, he adds:
“One […]
Tags: Complexity · Epistemology/Ontology/Value Theory · Knowledge Making · Knowledge Management