Knowledge and Its Limits

[sanraj]

Oxford University Press | English | Jun-2002 | PDF | 3.28 MB | 200 pages | RAR Compressed - 2.02 MB | No Password

Introduction
Knowing and Acting
Knowledge and action are the central relations between mind and world. In action, world is adapted to mind. In knowledge, mind is adapted to world. When world is maladapted to mind, there is a residue of desire. When mind is maladapted to world, there is a residue of belief. Desire aspires to action; belief aspires to knowledge. The point of desire is action; the point of belief is knowledge. Those slogans are not platitudes—unless platitudes can be generally contested. According to many philosophers, desire aspires only to satisfaction, and belief only to truth. Action is a systematic way to satisfied desire, and knowledge to true belief, but desires can also be satisfied and beliefs true by chance. There is satisfied desire without action and true belief without knowledge. Why ask for more? Satisfaction and truth already constitute the required match between mind and world, with the appropriate directions of fit. Of course, we sometimes desire to act; those desires are satisfied only if there is action. We sometimes believe ourselves to know; those beliefs are true only if there is knowledge. But such cases are special; our desires and beliefs frequently concern states of the world of which actions and beliefs are not themselves constituents. Although desires can be satisfied as well by chance as by action, that is no reason to marginalize the category of action in the understanding of mind. The place of desire in the economy of mental life depends on its potential connection with action. Similarly, although beliefs can be true as well by chance as by knowledge, that is no reason to marginalize the category of knowledge in the understanding of mind. This book develops a conception on which the place of belief in the economy of mental life depends on its potential connection with knowledge. The foregoing vague phrases will later be partially replaced by something end p.1 more precise. But that is not the purpose of this introduction, which is painted with a broad brush. Its aim is to give the reader a rough overall picture in which the layout of the main parts is visible. Subsequent chapters fill in details in the parts. Even they will amount to nothing like a proof that the picture is correct. Epistemological theories are not usually susceptible of proof. This book shows how to understand cognitive phenomena on the basis of some simple but generally overlooked ideas. The reader will judge those ideas by their fruit.

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