(February 28, 2015 at 10:49 am)Ignorant Wrote: It seems that, according to this understanding, it is possible to "know" something which is false (e.g. The earth is flat). This seems grossly inadequate to me. Is there a better way to speak about knowledge and what, exactly, it is? I think the Greeks had several words for different "kinds" of knowledge. Perhaps something similar could help?
Ok, judging from some of the posts here, it seems my OP needed to be more clear.
In my view, knowledge is more of a strong conviction that something is true because it is observed as such by the "knower" ... even if, in reality, it's actually false. Many people back in the ancient days (except for the smart Greeks, I guess) considered the earth to be flat because, in the absence of observed evidence to the contrary at the time, that's what it looked like to them. So I guess they "knew" that "the earth is flat" because that's what the earth looked like to them.
