Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Anaxarchus, Laurence Bonjour and David Hilbert

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2 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 1. Knowledge
The concept of knowledge is so confused that it is best avoided [Bonjour]
     Full Idea: The concept of knowledge is seriously problematic in more than one way, and is best avoided as far as possible in sober epistemological discussion.
     From: Laurence Bonjour (A Version of Internalist Foundationalism [2003], 1.5)
     A reaction: Two sorts of states seem to be conflated: one where an animal has a true belief caused by an environmental event, and the other where a scholar pores over books and experiments to arrive at a hard-won truth. I say only the second is 'knowledge'.
11. Knowledge Aims / B. Certain Knowledge / 1. Certainty
My theory aims at the certitude of mathematical methods [Hilbert]
     Full Idea: The goal of my theory is to establish once and for all the certitude of mathematical methods.
     From: David Hilbert (On the Infinite [1925], p.184), quoted by James Robert Brown - Philosophy of Mathematics Ch.5
     A reaction: This dream is famous for being shattered by Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem a mere six years later. Neverless there seem to be more limited certainties which are accepted in mathematics. The certainty of the whole of arithmetic is beyond us.