Saturday, July 30, 2005

philosophy of knowledge

How do we know if the fridge light has turned off when we close the door?
It depends on your philosophy of knowledge. The rationalists would claim we could reason that the light was off by knowing certain aspects of functioning fridges that involve door switches and light circuits. Empiricists, who claim that all knowledge come though our senses, would say they don't know if the light is off since you can't percieve it when the door is closed. Going further along these lines, the empiricist philospher George Berkeley would say that the light, whether on or off, would cease to exit because to be is to be perceived. Mind you, for him, the food and beer in the fridge would cease to exist as well. So either you can know or can't know if the light is off, depending on the presuppositions you approach your fridge with.
(From "Big Questions", P.4, Spectrum, Sydney Morning Herald, July 30-31 2005)

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