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303 points FigurativeVoid | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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PaulDavisThe1st ◴[] No.41842315[source]
> true, because it doesn't make sense to "know" a falsehoood

That's a problem right there. Maybe that made sense to the Greeks, but it definitely doesn't make any sense in the 21st century. "Knowing" falsehoods is something we broadly acknowledge that we all do.

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kragen ◴[] No.41843126[source]
No, I think many people use a definition of "know" that doesn't include "knowing" falsehoods. Possibly you and they have fundamentally beliefs about the nature of reality, or possibly you are just using different definitions for the same word.
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1. bbor ◴[] No.41843658[source]
This is the true analytic answer! More fundamentally, “know” is a move in whatever subtype of the English language game you’re playing at the moment, and any discussions we have about what it “really” or “truly” means should be based on those instrumental concerns.

E.g. a neurologist would likely be happy to speak of a brain knowing false information, but a psychologist would insist that that’s not the right word. And that’s not even approaching how this maps to close-but-not-quite-exact translations of the word in other languages…