Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Epistemology

Some people have difficulty with accepting Plato’s mathematical world as being in any sense ‘real’, and would gain no comfort from a view that physical reality itself is constructed from abstract notions. My own position on this matter is that we should take Plato’s world as providing a kind of ‘reality’ as mathematical notions (and as I’ve tried to argue for forcefully for in the case S1.3) but I might baulk at actually attempting to physically identify physical reality within the abstract reality of Plato’s world. I think that Fig. 34.1 best expresses my position on this question, where each of three worlds, Platonic-mathematical, physical and mental-has it’s own kind of reality, and where each is (deeply and mysteriously) found in one that precedes it ( the worlds take cyclicly). I like to think that, in a sense the Platonic world may be the most primitive of the three, since mathematics is a kind of necessity, virtually conjuring its very existence through logic alone. Be that as it may, there is a further mystery, or paradox, of the cyclic aspect of these worlds , where each seems to be able to encompass the succeeding one in its entirety, while itself seeming to depend only upon a small part of its predecessor.”
(Page 1028-The Road to Reality- Roger Penrose- Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knoff- 2004)


It was important to me to understand the differences here, and how I derived the ability of information of entering the location of the Synapse. While I had called it the Thinking Mind in relation to what is at the "tip of the Pyramid," it had to of course, go through a methodology before it could have said that all elements of the intuitive information gathered, was from a "idea of probabilities" that existed, yet, it is from that same location that all memories are stored.

"It was a matter of putting things together and ‘seeing’ the answer!" Roger Penrose- Shadows of the mind


The "infinite regress," was an inductive/deductive stance to developmental possibilities without having a mentorship around for consideration, and by developing "adhoc methods" in my search for knowledge, it became apparent any intuitive deduction/induction would had to be in face of all the information available from our experience and senses, as well as, what could exist from that place of "memories stored."

While the limitations of a life could had amounted to what is learnt in that life, it did not encompass what was possible from the storing of information from all of our lives. It did not encompass all that is stored in the "collective unconscious."

"To answer ‘by intuition’, is hardly satisfactory."Paul Benacerraf and Hillary Putnam


This of course requires a deeper critical analysis for my own understanding and development.


According to Plato, knowledge is a subset of that which is both true and believed

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is a branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. The term was introduced into English by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864).[2]

Much of the debate in this field has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims. In other words, epistemology primarily addresses the following questions: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?"


A priori and a posteriori (philosophy)

The terms "a priori" and "a posteriori" are used in philosophy to distinguish between deductive and inductive reasoning, respectively. Attempts to define clearly or explain a priori and a posteriori knowledge are part of a central thread in epistemology, the study of knowledge. Since the definitions and usage of the terms have been corrupted over time and therefore vary between fields, it is difficult to provide universal definitions of them. One rough and oversimplified explanation is that a priori knowledge is independent of experience, while a posteriori knowledge is dependent on experience. In other words, statements that are a priori true are tautologies.


Innatism

Innatism is a philosophical doctrine that holds that the mind is born with ideas/knowledge, and that therefore the mind is not a 'blank slate' at birth, as early empiricists such as John Locke claimed. It asserts therefore that not all knowledge is obtained from experience and the senses.


See:

The Synapse is a Portal of the Thinking Mind

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