Modal Argument: The Mind is Not the Brain

[Brakeman]

III.
Therefore, the claim that "Knowledge comes from experience and reasoning only." must have experience and reasoning to support it.

IV.
Nothing in our experience and reasoning tells us that "Knowledge comes from experience and reasoning only."


You could argue from induction, something like "We have ten trillion examples of knowledge learned from experience and reasoning." But this is fallacious reasoning. If we see ten trillion white swans, that doesn't mean a black swan cannot exist.

Therefore IV is true.

No, I don't agree at all that IV is true. You are confusing the classification of knowledge by others as a proposition. It isn't, it is a value statement.

If I say I consider blonds to be beautiful, you don't falsify my claim by finding a blond I dislike, you've merely found an exception to my classification. You would have to prove that all blonds repulse me to negate my classification. The "only" word of the positivist tenet is to claim a classification quality, meaning, " any other claims of knowledge sources are inferior to us."

When Positivists claim that all knowledge comes from reason and experience, they do so from first gaining experience. Experience comes first as a child, then reason is built upon the experience to create knowledge. Even seemingly non-experience related information, such as the classification of a song as beautiful or something rather abstract such as algebra, can be easily broken down into the factors of experience and reason.

I would like to see an example of some recognized knowledge that doesn't come from reason and experience, if you can think of one.