The scope and limits of human knowledge

Abstract

This paper argues that the foundations of our knowledge are the bed-rock certainties of ordinary life, what may be called the Moorean truths. Beyond that are the well-established results within the empirical sciences, and whatever has been proved in the rational sciences of mathematics and logic. Otherwise there is only belief, which may be more or less rational. A moral drawn from this is that dogmatism should be moderated on all sides.

Notes

¹This paper began life as a paper given to a Sydney University undergraduate philosophy society: The Russellian Society. I thank Bill (W. G.) Lycan for suggesting that it is worth publication.

²I thank Lycan for the following remark: There is a distinctively Moorean way that philosophers can help the quest for the true nature of motion. They can turn each of Zeno's arguments on their head, and then ask which of its premisses is the least credible.