Re: Knowledge and belief

[Steven Belknap <sbelknap@UIC.EDU>]

>That is why I confined the example to Newton's Laws and said that Einstein
>knew that they were FALSE.

Einstein described Newton's laws as being incomplete rather than false.

>There were, I believe, experimental confirmations
>of Einsteinian theory that also thereby disproved Newtonian physics, while
>Einstein was yet alive.

There were indeed such experiments.

>Newton lived in a time before the philosophizing of science had ruled out
>the "knowing" of scientific fact.  By the standards of his century, he
>almsot certainly could have claimed to "know" his laws were true.

I'm not sure what Newton's views on philosphy of science were. That would
be interesting to know. There may be something to what you say.

-Steven


Steven Belknap, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine
University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria