in reply to How do I know what I 'know' is right?

Every abstraction that is not a tautology contains some lie, and is therefore only applicable to some subset of all cases. The better abstractions cover more cases.

So, everything I know is a lie. I should always be prepared to eject any knowledge I have in light of some abstraction that covers more of the territory. It's all models, but some models are better than others.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

  • Comment on •Re: How do I know what I 'know' is right?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: How do I know what I 'know' is right?
by mojotoad (Monsignor) on Jul 20, 2003 at 08:16 UTC
    Every abstraction that is not a tautology contains some lie, and is therefore only applicable to some subset of all cases.

    Such as..."all premises, major or minor, involved in the construction of a syllogism are lies".

    Hmmm. Granted, deductive reasoning is only a subset of logic.

    :)

    Matt

      And logic is only a subset of real life ;-)