Statements are true if they are consistent with, proved by, or prove, other complete and consistent statements {coherence theory} {coherentism}. Whole belief sets are the only knowledge. Beliefs belong to complete and consistent belief networks. Belief networks can reinforce beliefs by consistency, completeness, probability, or power. Beliefs can form complete, consistent, and integrated structures. However, completeness and coherence are not the same as truth. Propositions can form complete and consistent sets.
People cannot observe reality without disturbing it {complementarity, epistemology}|. Brain and mind are two aspects of reality, and people cannot know both at once. Mind is observer, and brain is actor. Observer and actor are the same. Physical law is about experience, not about external physical world and objects.
Acquiring, maintaining, and deleting beliefs can be by will {doxastic voluntarism}. People can will beliefs themselves, but only if beliefs are not actions.
Statements are true if and only they are facts about words associated with objects and events in physical world and so correspond to reality {correspondence theory of truth}. However, observations and experiments can have hidden assumptions, obscuring correspondence to reality.
All human knowledge involves interpretative, subjective, and relative analysis {post-modernism, epistemology}| {neo-pragmatism} {post-structuralism} {linguistic turn}.
Perhaps, hypotheses are true if consequences of believing lead to personal well-being, success, and satisfaction {pragmatism, epistemology}| {pragmaticism, epistemology}. The best theory test is what happens when using theory. True beliefs have good practical effects in thinking and acting. They help people, are profitable, correspond to actual events, or are expedient in most situations. Knowledge is adaptive. Propositions are true if they are useful. Self or world experience confirms knowledge.
problems
Usefulness is not the same as truth. People cannot know much about world or practical utility. Utility changes with time and place. Useful fictions are not true.
Perhaps, all statements are only beliefs or opinions, no statements are truths, and no truths are knowable, so people should have no beliefs {skepticism}| {doubt}. Nothing is certain, because knowledge is not absolute. Many consistent and complete alternative explanations are possible. People can only know appearances, not reality, and can be in error about appearances. People can never have knowledge, only beliefs. People must suspend judgment, tolerate other opinions, and avoid dogma.
types
People can be unable to distinguish true situations from false, so they can never have certain knowledge {knowledge skepticism}. People can be unable to defend strategies and criteria used for truth, resulting in no basis for belief {belief skepticism}.
Perhaps, names and words refer to human linguistic conventions and categories {nominalism}|, not to real things.
Perhaps, reality exists independently of perception {realism, metaphysics}|. Names and words refer to real things and categories.
Knowing statements are true or not true does not add knowledge but is only useful {deflationary theory of truth}.
Statements that statements are true are only for emphasis {redundancy theory of truth}.
True beliefs, and causes related to situations, can give knowledge {causal theory, knowledge}.
True beliefs, and their justifications, can give knowledge {justification theory}. However, justification theory is not sufficient for knowledge, because propositions can be illusions or logical-justification steps can be false, though conclusions are true.
Reliable methods of gaining true beliefs can give knowledge {reliability theory}.
Perhaps, people cannot know true nature of reality, objects, or events {agnosticism}|.
People cannot know actual physical things-in-themselves {noumena}.
Physical theories are only for calculations and do not have truths about physical world {instrumentalism, science}|. Science terms describe and predict but do not refer to physical objects, which people cannot know.
Belief meaning and contents are belief-network units {atomism, epistemology}, so beliefs can have many uses.
Belief meaning and contents relate to belief-network regions {molecularism}, so beliefs can have multiple uses with multiple theories.
Belief meaning and contents relate to whole belief-networks {holism}| {mental holism} {semantic holism}, so beliefs are unique and have one use.
Perhaps, knowledge or mental states depends on both internal and environmental events {externalism, epistemology}. This is anti-individualism. People think and speak based on how experts use words [Putnam, 1975] [Putnam, 1981] [Putnam, 1988] [Putnam, 1992].
Knowledge and mental states do not depend on environment, only on minds or brains {internalism, mind} {individualism, epistemology}.
Basic justified facts, beliefs, or mental abilities exist {foundationalism}, from which to deduce other beliefs. However, knowledge relies on concepts, and sense qualities rely on sensory experiences.
Mental states, even qualia, are always representations {intentionalism}.
Other people do not necessarily experience the same things as a person does {methodological solipsism}. Many methods and rules rely on this assumption. Only personal introspection and experimentation can give knowledge.
People inherit perception capacities or abilities {nativism, idealism}, rather than learning them.
Mind has innate fundamental concepts {rationalism, epistemology}|, which allow a priori knowledge and further knowledge.
Knowledge is only personal {subjectivism} {idealism}. For example, colors are visual mental states or properties. Brain opponent processes cause qualitative color similarities, with no correspondence to physical properties. Neural properties that explain qualitative relations among perceived colors can differ from perceived colors themselves. People do not necessarily experience such similarities, or they are not essential, so they differ from color itself. How do brains perceive mental qualitative visual properties as mind-independent object properties? Do mental qualitative properties or states have functions?
Sense data, secondary qualities, primary qualities, space-time universals, and natural laws can be part of absolute self and so be universal and objective, but may be only illusions.
Fundamental categories used to understand reality are not real objective features but are mental conceptual structures {Kantian idealism, epistemology} {transcendental idealism}| and make experience possible.
Perception involves intentions {transcendental phenomenology}.
Knowledge grows and changes continuously, to higher organization and complexity {evolutionary epistemology}. The best ideas survive. Humans hold knowledge using metaconcepts developed during evolution: logic, simplicity, mathematical relations, and curiosity. Metaconcepts helped people survive.
Brains are computers with fixed code, registers, and programs {instructionism, epistemology}.
Physical reality is describable by independent propositions, verified independently {logical atomism}. However, propositions about physical reality are not verifiable independently of fundamental propositions. Verification criteria must be consistent and complete, but this is not possible.
Mind is functions and works by responses that condition to stimuli to formulate propositions {logical behaviorism} {philosophical behaviorism}. Thinking and doing have different types and cannot compare. Mental states do not exist. Brain has only dispositions to move. Sense qualities are dispositions to behave or to act intelligently, not internal representations. Brain has no person or mentality {ghost in the machine} [Ryle].
Only observations and experiments can establish statement truth or falsity {logical positivism, realism}.
Mental things are in the physical world {naturalism, epistemology}|. Science can evaluate belief strategies and criteria to give knowledge.
Representations do not explain behavior. Knowledge of unconscious skilled actions can explain behavior {phenomenological critique of representationalism}.
Physical properties can realize mental properties {physicalism, epistemology}.
People can only know sense data {physical phenomenalism}, which is what they experience or describe about objects.
Knowledge is only about observable facts and relations {positivism}|.
Knowledge is passive perception {sensationalism, realism}.
Knowledge and society depend on social relations, subjective human activities, and human values {social constructionism}.
People construct internal reality from sense data and cannot know if that reality corresponds to physical world {structural realism}. Evolution has provided space, time, and color categories, which people need in human environments.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225