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Question: How much of our knowledge is what we really know and how much is from what we have read or heard!?
What do we REALLY know!? Most of what I "know" is what someone else has told me or what I have read!. I've gotten answers to questions from many people who claim to "know" but really they only forward what they have read and what others have told them!. This question relates to the building of the atomic accelorater in Europe that has that some physicists believe could create black holes that will destroy this planet!. So as far as those scientists who are working on the project go, how much do they really know for a fact, and how much are they relying on what they've read or been told!. And yes I know that this is a stupid question, but I still want to hear your opinions on this!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
I gave you a star because this question made me think!.!.
what do we really know!.!.!.!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

"Yeah it's Maya and Miguel, brother and sister and best friends as well!. Yeah it's Maya and Miguel what they will do next no one can ever tell!.!.!."
I think that's how it goes!.!.!. I may be off by some but this answer should do!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

50/50!. My major experience was something that I couldn't put into words and then found a book that did that!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

every thing you know you have learned in some wayWww@QuestionHome@Com

I would say that most of what they are concerned baout is based on mathematically equations!. Math is exact and cannot lie!. However, the appliance of that math towards an unknown like creating a black hole is the spposition part!. That part they have to rely on theories from before them or as they go!. I would say it is 50/50!. They cannot know for sure, hence the concern!. However, they must admit that they can't know for sure, hence the willingness to see what happens!.
I personally find it hard to believe that man can make something that causes a black hole, but I prolly would have said that man cannot make a bomb as strong as they have!.
Most of what we "know" comes form outside of us!. We can take something and advance on it htough!. This is different!. Take a fact, or truth and advance more educaiton by discoveries and tests and get more data will yield to more info to pass on, and so on!. They could be at that stage and we just don't know!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It's not a stupid question! The question of whether testimony/authority can be a sound source of knowledge has vexed philosophers for ages!. If you don't see something yourself, on what grounds can you accept it as true!?

Hume proposed a very good system to deal with the problem of testimonial knowledge which incorporates Bayesian probability analysis!. Analysing testimony involves many considerations -- how trustworthy the source is, how believeable is his testimony, etc!.

When you have someone like a noteable scientist -- a fairly knowledgeable and trustworthy source -- testifying to his discovery of something -- assuming that it coheres well with contemporary scientific knowledge -- the probability is high that he is telling the truth!. Thus, we can claim rational grounds for belief in his discovery!.

This example is obviously a gross oversimplification, but you get the point!.

Hume employed his system against the belief in miracles, arguing that it is more probable that a witness to a miracle is not telling the truth than that a miracle occurred, and so more rational to believe the former!. You can find his account in his book "Of Miracles", which is part of his larger "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

If you read something new and it is verifiable, or valid, and you can recall this thing, have you not learned it!?

Most of what I know I have either received in a lecture or read, mostly read!. I have put much of that to practice but on most information I depend upon reading the efforts and accumulated knowledge of others!.

How can I know thew speed of light if,I have not tested it!?

How can I know about M Theory, physical biology, the human genome, psychiatric disorders, a good restaurant in Barcelona or Munich!?

How can I know about the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, well, I've seen that, but you get my point!.

Very little information is original with us, we learn most of what we know from the efforts of others who are generous enough to!.!.!.share!.

If I accepted the Stone Age concept of God, I'd thank god for the Internet!. I believe the Net will be man's greatest invention in support of freedom, we see it happening as we speak (write)!Www@QuestionHome@Com

You've missed one GREAT thing, dear! Before that I ask you, with what knowledge a newborn baby uses to come in this world!? Nothing, probably your answer I expect, right!? But I wonder how that baby knows, where the nipple of her mom is! How to suck breast----that's a great skill indeed! From where the baby got that knowledge!? It means, we know something other than reading, hearing, knowing from! The great thing you missed is the 'WISDOM'!. Besides reading, hearing, knowing from others, experiencing------there are persons like scholars, who not only 'forward' stuffs they read, heard etc!. They themselves think deeply & applying (read: adding) their "knowledge-1" + "knowledge-2, they create "knowledge-3------this third one they never had read or heard! That's a new knowledge to you!. Now it's your turn to create the fourth one & thus enrich the world of KNOWLEDGE!.Www@QuestionHome@Com