Re: Can we ever know truth?

From: Brent Meeker <meekerdb.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 19:35:58 -0700

Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
...
> If we "realise that things cannot be as they seem" then this is new evidence
> and things now seem different to what they originally did! I did not intend
> that "things are as they seem" be understood in a narrow sense, such as
> what our senses can immediately apprehend. Complex scientific evidence,
> philosophical considerations, historical experience: all of it has to be added
> to the mix and whatever comes out is what we should accept as the provisional
> best theory. We know that it may not be the truth - indeed, that we might
> never actually know the truth - but it is the best we can do.
>
> Stathis Papaioannou

OK, I agree. "Things as they seem" in the broader scientific sense is what I
mean by a model of reality. I sometimes think that's why there has been such a
long and continuing argument about the interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Although we can do the math and check the experiment - things just can't "seem
that way".

Brent Meeker

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Received on Tue Aug 15 2006 - 22:38:01 PDT

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