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From: dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: How do you know
Message-ID: <420@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Oct-84 17:35:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.420
Posted: Thu Oct 25 17:35:36 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Oct-84 03:31:15 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: UW Primate Center
Lines: 41

>> >> "I can not explain how I know, but I do". 
>> > That means that you don't.
>> 
>> Do you know how to raise your arm?  Of course.  But: how do you do it?
>> Do you know how to add 2 and 2?  Of course.  But: how do you do it?
>> -- 
>> Paul DuBois		{allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois
>
>What we have here is a classic case of the fallacy of argument of the shifting
>middle term.
>
>What does Paul mean by the word "know" in the first sentence?  Does it mean
>that he has amnesia about making love?  I don't think so.  There are at least
>two meanings of "know" that he wants us to confuse in that first sentence.
>The first is "to be convinced of".  I certainly won't argue that Paul isn't
>convinced of what he says.  Others are "to perceive directly", "to have
>understanding of", and "to have knowledge" (where we might want to use the
>definition of knowledge "facts or ideas acquired by study, investigation,
>observation, or experience".)
>
>That last definition, in terms of knowledge, is what Paul doesn't have,
>and what he is arguing about.  The reason to argue is terms of knowledge as
>facts and ideas is to distinguish it from delusion.  How can you tell
>knowledge from delusion unless others can follow in the same steps?
>
>In addition, Paul then provides an inappropriate analogy as an incomplete
>argument.  I know how to raise my arm.  But the question to follow is not
>"how do I do it", but "how do I know that I can raise my arm".  Paul
>confuses knowledge with metaknowledge (metaknowledge is knowledge about
>knowledge.)

Wrong-o.  To illustrate:

Do I know God?  Yes.  But how do I do it?
-- 
Paul DuBois		{allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church,
and gave himself for it."	Ephesians 5:25

Would you die for your wife?