Tuesday, 26 March 2024
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Hello. All is well. Here in my garage.. you know what I like more than materialistic things? KNOWLEDGE. I'm now reading "Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction" by Jennifer Nagel. 

In chapter one, we learn of factivity, cynical theory and relativist theory. Factivity is that knowledge or knowing can only be about truth or true propositions, whereas thinking can have uncertainty of truth or have falsehood. Cynical theory is an idea that knowledge does not exist by itself but with power or perception of power, as in the authority or status of the knower. Relativist theory is that knowledge is relative to the knower because of feelings, and time because we can change our minds. Some people don't like that and what to know objective truths. I think both make sense. The book uses the example that a wind may feel warm to you but cold to me. Yes, it speaks about feeling so it's dependent on the person feeling it. We can also measure it in celsius for a more objective description that isn't dependent on a person's feelings. Both are just as valid but feeling is a property of the person in relation to the wind, and not the wind itself.

The second chapter is about scepticism or skepticism for Americans. I think I prefer american spelling, so I'll probably use that for the rest of my writing. Unless I start writing in another language. Anyway, they first talk about stoic epistemology, where you have impressions and judgments. Impression is what you can sense and judgment is how certain you are of the impression, if you accept or reject it. Then you have academic skeptics, some dudes in Athens, who say impressions are inherently fallible, so you can't make proper judgment of them. The book then goes on about different dudes yapping about this. They mention Bertrand Russel that talks about inference to the best explanation. I feel like that's kind of in the same spirit of stoic epistemology. But the book continues about an evil demon deceiving you or your brain in a vat. Did you know in danish vat means cotton wool? I was imagining cotton candy as fluffy, mushy brain goo, yum. They talk about semantic externalism, how meaning of words stem from external reality, but as we learned in previous book, it goes both ways, our previous experiences will influence future perception, but it starts from external reality, yes. I found this mostly annoying to read, and developed a headache along the way. Perhaps philosophy is not for me, at least not the history of it, but I'll continue nonetheless. There is value to be found in things that annoy you. Anyhow, what I gathered is that they want knowledge to be an absolute truth without context. I feel a middle ground is to accept truth with context. With the brain in vat thingy, we can just mention a context, like in the context of what I perceive, I perceive whatever like cute ducks, rushing towards you on their little feet, quacking. We can limit knowledge to a context for more certainty and accept uncertainty in broader contexts. Arguably, if no context is defined, then no knowledge can be defined. I know, mindblowing idea. Maybe I'm too ignorant for now to see the depth in what is being discussed and need a good smacking (intellectually). 

Hmm. I went for a walk and I felt uncomfortably cold and my nose was more runny than usual. I was in town yesterday. I might've caught a cold or flu. This may be a good showcase of affective realism. That I find the reading more annoying than I'd normally find it because I incorrectly rationalize my negative affective feelings from the cold to the reading. I was in a warm room, sitting in a comfortable chair, making me more unaware of bodily senses indicating that I may have a cold, with the contents of the book being the main thing in my affective niche. It did confuse me why I developed a headache simply from reading something I found annoying. I think a cold better explains it, haha.

In chapter three, we learn about rationalism and empiricism. These two came about in the 16th century when we started to move away from viewing humans and earth as the center of the universe. I'm starting to feel too nauseous to continue for now.