Re: On Knowledge
[q="supersmashman"]A fact is what we perceive to be the truth right now. The same information might be a fact forever or change moments after it is deemed a fact. A certainty is impossible to know, since you can't know if anything is even real. Hence one of my favourite sayings: The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. So basically, you can't know anything.[/q]
A fact is essentially what you described, a statement that is true about a specific time, but since you went into the whole "Matrix says is this real" philosophy thing, I figured I'd point something out.
There's no evidence of any other reality. This is, as far as we know, it. All of our knowledge and technologies (astronomy and things like airplanes that, of all things, fly) is based on the facts (not preceptions) that we happen to have collected. When someone proves to me that there may be another reality out there that says that facts are pointless imaginings of the human mind, I'll go with it. I don't know how they'd manage to do it without using facts, though.
And back to facts. Sure, they can change. What is true at this very moment in time may not be true five seconds from now. But it will still be true that it happened at this time. That is why, in the stating of a fact, it is commonly a good thing to say when it was true.
Q
[q="supersmashman"]A fact is what we perceive to be the truth right now. The same information might be a fact forever or change moments after it is deemed a fact. A certainty is impossible to know, since you can't know if anything is even real. Hence one of my favourite sayings: The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. So basically, you can't know anything.[/q]
A fact is essentially what you described, a statement that is true about a specific time, but since you went into the whole "Matrix says is this real" philosophy thing, I figured I'd point something out.
There's no evidence of any other reality. This is, as far as we know, it. All of our knowledge and technologies (astronomy and things like airplanes that, of all things, fly) is based on the facts (not preceptions) that we happen to have collected. When someone proves to me that there may be another reality out there that says that facts are pointless imaginings of the human mind, I'll go with it. I don't know how they'd manage to do it without using facts, though.
And back to facts. Sure, they can change. What is true at this very moment in time may not be true five seconds from now. But it will still be true that it happened at this time. That is why, in the stating of a fact, it is commonly a good thing to say when it was true.
Q
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