> > So my thesis is that subjective experience *in itself* > > is a selfish act that is of no use to anyone else in > > the world... > > Ravi Yogi: > You are indeed right... > Huh?
It all depends on what you mean by "knowledge" and what you mean by "belief". Knowledge means having reasons, or justification for having a true belief. "Believing" just means that you think something is true. So, belief is a factor of knowledge. Another factor of knowledge is truth. We can only know what is true - we cannot know what is false. So, how is it that people wind up with false beliefs? Something is true when we have lots of good reasons to believe that it's true - we have justification for our beliefs. Usually we get justification through our senses - seeing is believing - and so we infer that certain events are true based on our personal experience. So, we can believe something is true based on what we see and what we experience. We also believe something is true based on what we infer, and we believe something is true based on the verbal testimony of others. So, what Turq just wrote is basically his belief and he believes that it is true. But, to deny personal experience is a little more than bizarre! So, where do you think the Turq gets these beliefs, if not from others or from books he read? How would Turq know that a subjective experience is of no value to any one else? Does Turq believe that he has knowledge that is superior to sense experience? If, so it's another Turq flip-flop, since Turq recently proclaimed to be a non-believer in a transcendental experience. Go figure.
