Ron
Puritan Board Freshman
“Why are you assuming Platonic idealism here?”
I didn't know that I was. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
“Why does there have to be a divine repository of knowledge for me to be able to know that, for example, I am sitting on a chair?”
Your question seems to be, Why must God be omniscient for you to know anything? If God does not know you are sitting in a chair, then it is false that you are sitting in a chair (since God knows all truth). Conversely, if it is not false you are sitting in a chair (i.e. if it is true…), then God knows it. In other words, since you cannot know as true that which is false, God would have to know you are sitting in a chair for you to know you are sitting in a chair. This principle is universal; so we may say that God’s knowledge of what you know is a necessary condition for what you know. So at the very least, God must know everything you know. Not only is God’s knowledge of your knowledge necessary, it must also precede your knowledge (not just temporally but logically). Your knowledge is not original but receptive. You’ll know what God says you’ll know. I’ll assume I need not argue that Calvinistic point to you. With all that granted, we may safely conclude that not only is it necessary that God know what you know; his knowledge precedes yours due to the Creator-creature distinction.
Possibly it is more obvious that certain other things (other than God’s omniscience) are necessary for, and prior to, your knowledge of sitting on a chair. For instance, “I am sitting on a chair” does not mean “I am not sitting on a chair”; hence the law of contradiction is presupposed and, therefore, precedes the intelligibility of the proposition and consequently your knowledge of it. Now then, does the law of contradiction apply to internal thought, or does it apply to external things too? I trust you’ll affirm the latter; presumably we’re talking about a physical chair outside your mind. Accordingly, there must be some fruitful connection between the abstract entities of logic and Chairness, and the material world of chairs and not chairs. “I am sitting on a chair” is intelligible but only if certain other realities logically precede the proposition. You possess categories of logical, internal thought. And, there is an external world to which those categories of thought correspond. But how can it be that your knowledge is based upon that needful universal law of contradiction without you having universal experience? The only solution is that Someone who must know all things has revealed to you that the law of contradiction is universal and invariant, and that He has not been tricked by the Demiurge. In the final analyses, I would suggest to you that as creatures, we need not know all things to know some things because an omniscient, good God has granted us knowledge of some things without our having to know all things.
“Why do I believe in the law of non-contradiction? Because it's necessarily true since the alternative is obviously false.”
Your question can be written as: “Why do I believe that the law of contradiction is true?” When written out in long hand, your response becomes glaringly tautological. Your answer “because it is necessarily true" and it can’t be otherwise is simply question begging. The reason it is true is because it reflects the very thinking of God.
"What you are searching for is metaphysical justification, not epistemological justification, which is, in my opinion, backwards."
What I have tried to do is consider our knowledge in light of God’s ethics, reality and knowledge.
Cheers, Philip.
Ron
I didn't know that I was. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
“Why does there have to be a divine repository of knowledge for me to be able to know that, for example, I am sitting on a chair?”
Your question seems to be, Why must God be omniscient for you to know anything? If God does not know you are sitting in a chair, then it is false that you are sitting in a chair (since God knows all truth). Conversely, if it is not false you are sitting in a chair (i.e. if it is true…), then God knows it. In other words, since you cannot know as true that which is false, God would have to know you are sitting in a chair for you to know you are sitting in a chair. This principle is universal; so we may say that God’s knowledge of what you know is a necessary condition for what you know. So at the very least, God must know everything you know. Not only is God’s knowledge of your knowledge necessary, it must also precede your knowledge (not just temporally but logically). Your knowledge is not original but receptive. You’ll know what God says you’ll know. I’ll assume I need not argue that Calvinistic point to you. With all that granted, we may safely conclude that not only is it necessary that God know what you know; his knowledge precedes yours due to the Creator-creature distinction.
Possibly it is more obvious that certain other things (other than God’s omniscience) are necessary for, and prior to, your knowledge of sitting on a chair. For instance, “I am sitting on a chair” does not mean “I am not sitting on a chair”; hence the law of contradiction is presupposed and, therefore, precedes the intelligibility of the proposition and consequently your knowledge of it. Now then, does the law of contradiction apply to internal thought, or does it apply to external things too? I trust you’ll affirm the latter; presumably we’re talking about a physical chair outside your mind. Accordingly, there must be some fruitful connection between the abstract entities of logic and Chairness, and the material world of chairs and not chairs. “I am sitting on a chair” is intelligible but only if certain other realities logically precede the proposition. You possess categories of logical, internal thought. And, there is an external world to which those categories of thought correspond. But how can it be that your knowledge is based upon that needful universal law of contradiction without you having universal experience? The only solution is that Someone who must know all things has revealed to you that the law of contradiction is universal and invariant, and that He has not been tricked by the Demiurge. In the final analyses, I would suggest to you that as creatures, we need not know all things to know some things because an omniscient, good God has granted us knowledge of some things without our having to know all things.
“Why do I believe in the law of non-contradiction? Because it's necessarily true since the alternative is obviously false.”
Your question can be written as: “Why do I believe that the law of contradiction is true?” When written out in long hand, your response becomes glaringly tautological. Your answer “because it is necessarily true" and it can’t be otherwise is simply question begging. The reason it is true is because it reflects the very thinking of God.
"What you are searching for is metaphysical justification, not epistemological justification, which is, in my opinion, backwards."
What I have tried to do is consider our knowledge in light of God’s ethics, reality and knowledge.
Cheers, Philip.
Ron