[MD] Representationalism

[Steve Peterson]

Hi Matt:

> Steve said:
> I'm fine 
> with saying that knowing is an intellectual
> (linguistic) activity, but how 
> is it we come to know something? To know is to
> create an intellectual 
> pattern, but that creative act was not necessarily
> motivated "by talking." 
> It could have been motivated by sitting on a hot
> stove.
> 
> Matt:
> I think saying the above is fine.  


Steve:

Cool. Thanks fo rthe comments.

Matt:
> So my instinct is to shy away from "not all
> knowledge is linguistically 
> obtained" because to me it still sounds a little
> like we can get knowledge 
> from non-linguistic items.  There isn't any
> knowledge in non-language.  
> Non-linguistic items _cause_ us to think things, but
> they don't _give_ us 
> knowledge.  All knowledge is internally generated in
> language.  


Steve:

I had a feeling "obtained" wasn't quite the right
word. I like the explanation you gave and the examples
were helpful.

Matt:
> The main objection to the above is given by people
> like DMB who want to make 
> room for "mystical knowledge" which they take to
> mean "non-linguistic 
> knowledge."  Obviously my definitions deny such a
> thing, so they take it as 
> a reductio ad absurdum.  My reply usually takes the
> form of 1) I "deny" 
> knowledge to rocks as much as I do mystical
> experiences (so no scientistic 
> motive), 2) How do you avoid the SOMic problems of
> representationalism?, and 
> 3) while I may deny non-linguistic _knowledge_ there
> are still 
> non-linguistic _causes_.  And by this I mean,
> there's still room in 
> Davidsonian philosophy of language for mystical
> causes, and in fact for 
> mystical knowledge, its just the case that in this
> rendering all mystical 
> knowledge is linguistic, generated by the linguistic
> practices of mystics 
> (who are caused to utter certain things in certain
> circumstances).

Steve:

I agree. The way I think of intellectual patterns
"mystical knowledge" makes sense only as intellectual
patterns motivated by mystical experience.

Regards,
Steve

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