True statements {fact} about reality are possible. Facts can be true or false, based on perceptions and explanations.
Names {name, epistemology} are singular, like proper nouns, or general, like common nouns.
Statements {synthetic statement}| can state empirical facts.
Facts or beliefs have negations {counterfactual}|. Beliefs can be true if negations are false {counterfactual theory}. The statement "If P happens, then Q happens" {causation, conditional} can invert to "If Q does not happen, then P does not happen" {counterfactual conditional}.
For all a and b, "a is true if and only if b" and "b is true if and only if a" are true {equivalence thesis}.
Proving statements false {falsification}| can gain knowledge.
Reasoning can use difficult sentence types, rhetorical argument tricks, or emotional tactics {sophism}|.
Logical inferences {valid inference} can have conclusions that are true in any interpretation in which premises are true. Valid inferences, and logic, depend on word references, not uses.
Two inductions can lead to the same cause, or two testimonies or experiments can state the same fact {consilience}|.
Statements and opposites can combine into higher-level statements {dialectic}|.
Explanations {explanation} describe how parts work, how parts interact, and how interactions combine to give system output from input. Explanations describe units that interact and interaction rules. Rules include goals and representations. Explanations involve reasons and methods to recognize or evaluate reasons. Explanations must leave something out.
use
Knowing how to use something is not the same as knowing how it works.
expression
Understanding requires actually saying or writing explanations.
types
Explanations include function from structure, means to ends, conclusion from premises, effect from causes, and body from support.
Interpreting {interpretation, word} {word interpretation} can assign semantic values to all statement words.
How mind acquires knowledge, and how people judge knowledge {judgment, epistemology}, are two different processes. Beliefs are concepts about whether perceptions are real.
If people know p, people know that they know p {KK-thesis}.
Causal explanations require general concepts {meta-account} about units and laws.
In rules, equivalent-thing substitution should preserve truth {salva veritate}. However, some situations do not substitute this way.
Statements can refer to themselves {self-reference, statement}. Self-reference causes some paradoxes.
Particulars {particular} are class examples or object properties. Experiences are only about particulars.
Mental constructs {universal, epistemology} depend on inductive inference from experiences of particulars.
quantifier
Statements can include "all...", "some...", or "at least one...".
predicates
Universal statements are actually predicates. They mean, "The objects exist, and, if there is such object, then..." Asserting existence requires subject. Asserting essence requires predicate. Only particular nouns can be statement subjects.
particulars
Universals, Ideas, or Forms are actually particulars. For example, beauty is not itself beautiful. Beauty is not pattern for beauty or the beautiful itself. Universals are relative, not absolute. They are object qualities.
Beliefs, desires, and perhaps thoughts are statements that contain propositions, mental ideas, or situations {intentionality}|. They point to something, imaginary or real, inside or outside self. Intentionality logically relates person and objects, events, and statements. People can pay attention to, track, speak about, and know about objects, events, and statements.
Intention relates represented and representer. Agents have beliefs or wants about representations.
language
Reference can happen only in languages. Reference to something else is the foundation for all languages. Different symbolic representations can use different languages.
mental states
Perhaps, all mental states and events are intentions. For example, hopes, fears, ideas, beliefs, desires, thoughts, perceptions, dreams, and hallucinations are about, or of, something else. Sentences, questions, poems, headlines, instructions, pictures, charts, films, symphonic tone poems, and computer programs are intentions.
mental states: non-intentional
Mental phenomena, such as pain and pleasure, can be only about themselves, not intentional. Conscious states can be non-representational. However, pains and itches can be about body locations, orgasms can be about body changes, and emotions and moods can be body states.
consciousness
Representations can be non-conscious. Before uttering or comprehending, sentences seemingly represent. Perhaps, they represent only after conscious understanding. Unconscious beliefs represent. Perhaps, they represent only by association with conscious beliefs. Cognitive processing uses unconscious representation. Controlling machines use representations. Lower animals and plants represent environmental properties.
Consciousness can be about representation type, for example, behavior that controls representations (Tye) (Dretske). Consciousness selects from behavior sets or ranges. However, unconscious processes control most behavior (Libet) (Goodale).
comparison to relations
Because they reference something else, beliefs and hopes differ from ordinary relations like nouns or spatial relations.
Intentional relations {intentional idiom} are referentially opaque relation subsets.
Messages {message, epistemology} explain intentionality using information-theory concepts.
6-Philosophy-Epistemology-Thinking
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Date Modified: 2022.0225