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Re14: Omniscience in Three Domains NOTES
For proper formatting (bold, italics, etc.) and graphics (where applicable) see the PDF version. Copyright: 2020 Retraice, Inc.
Re14: Omniscience in Three DomainsRetraice1
On answering the question 'What's going on out there?'
Air date: Friday, 13th Nov. 2020, 3 : 40 PM Pacific/US.
"What's going on out there"?If you don't 'know what's going on out there', in the colloquial sense, you're limited to only knowing the things that physically reach you, the physical events that directly affect your body. Your senses cannot reach beyond their horizons.
But a definition of succeeding at answering the question 'What's going on out there?' should not be trivial. Some things 'going on out there' are more important than others, by some definition of 'important'.
Omniscience—physical, animate, mentalPhysical omniscience: knowing what and where everything is, and all the rules of what can be and what can happen.2
Animate omniscience: knowing everything that life is doing, and can do.
Mental omniscience: knowing everything that minds are doing, and can do.
What are the people up to?This is perhaps the most interesting and significant question. And sometimes (most times?) they don't even know.
NonsenseA finite brain cannot approach any of the three omniscience states described.
At the other end of the scale, 'shooting from the hip' is also bad.
But the destination defines the direction; aiming for the ideal is correct, even if we know we can never get there.
Sources and trustAccepting our limitations, we notice that cooperation with others changes what we can know. The problem is access—the mental is out of reach, while words and actions can be deceiving.
Lies happen; mistakes happen; reliability in one domain does not imply reliability in another; motivation affects belief.
ReferencesHonderich, T. (Ed.) (2005). Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. ISBN: 0199264791. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0199264791 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0199264791 https://lccn.loc.gov/2005275452
Weatherford, R. C. (2005). Determinism. (pp. 208–209). In Honderich (2005).
1https://www.retraice.com/retraice
2Cf. Weatherford (2005) p. 209 on the 'Laplacian demon': "After Newton propounded his laws of gravitation and mechanics, Laplace pointed out that if a powerful intellect (usually called Laplace's demon) possessed an understanding of Newton's laws, and had a description of the current position and momentum of each particle in the universe, and the requisite mathematical ability, that powerful intellect could predict and retrodict every event in the history of the universe."
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By Retraice, Inc.For proper formatting (bold, italics, etc.) and graphics (where applicable) see the PDF version. Copyright: 2020 Retraice, Inc.
Re14: Omniscience in Three DomainsRetraice1
On answering the question 'What's going on out there?'
Air date: Friday, 13th Nov. 2020, 3 : 40 PM Pacific/US.
"What's going on out there"?If you don't 'know what's going on out there', in the colloquial sense, you're limited to only knowing the things that physically reach you, the physical events that directly affect your body. Your senses cannot reach beyond their horizons.
But a definition of succeeding at answering the question 'What's going on out there?' should not be trivial. Some things 'going on out there' are more important than others, by some definition of 'important'.
Omniscience—physical, animate, mentalPhysical omniscience: knowing what and where everything is, and all the rules of what can be and what can happen.2
Animate omniscience: knowing everything that life is doing, and can do.
Mental omniscience: knowing everything that minds are doing, and can do.
What are the people up to?This is perhaps the most interesting and significant question. And sometimes (most times?) they don't even know.
NonsenseA finite brain cannot approach any of the three omniscience states described.
At the other end of the scale, 'shooting from the hip' is also bad.
But the destination defines the direction; aiming for the ideal is correct, even if we know we can never get there.
Sources and trustAccepting our limitations, we notice that cooperation with others changes what we can know. The problem is access—the mental is out of reach, while words and actions can be deceiving.
Lies happen; mistakes happen; reliability in one domain does not imply reliability in another; motivation affects belief.
ReferencesHonderich, T. (Ed.) (2005). Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. ISBN: 0199264791. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0199264791 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0199264791 https://lccn.loc.gov/2005275452
Weatherford, R. C. (2005). Determinism. (pp. 208–209). In Honderich (2005).
1https://www.retraice.com/retraice
2Cf. Weatherford (2005) p. 209 on the 'Laplacian demon': "After Newton propounded his laws of gravitation and mechanics, Laplace pointed out that if a powerful intellect (usually called Laplace's demon) possessed an understanding of Newton's laws, and had a description of the current position and momentum of each particle in the universe, and the requisite mathematical ability, that powerful intellect could predict and retrodict every event in the history of the universe."