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The meaning of "knowledge"
Hypothetical:
In Town X, a burglary is reported to the police. They investigate, and their investigation leads to Bob, who has previous convictions for that sort of thing. They find the stolen goods at Bob's house, Bob is questioned, he confesses, it goes to trial, Bob pleads guilty, the jury is convinced by the evidence, and Bob is sentenced accordingly.
In fact, Bob had not committed the burglary. In fact, he had a provable alibi - he was out committing another burglary (of equivalent severity) elsewhere in town at the time. The original burglary was done by a friend of his, and he was just storing the goods at his house. Given that demonstrating his alibi wouldn't have saved him any prison time, and would have involved fingering his accomplices (which would have damaged his standing in the criminal underworld), he felt that the simplest thing to do was to take the rap for the original burglary.
This is all to illustrate a philosophical point about the word "know" (and "knowledge" etc). A poll:
(ETA Note that the previous convictions don't count when I'm asking whether the legal system knew Bob had committed burglary... I meant to ask "...committed burglary on that day" or something similar. This ETA is before anyone but me has answered this, so all the results reflect this ETA)
In Town X, a burglary is reported to the police. They investigate, and their investigation leads to Bob, who has previous convictions for that sort of thing. They find the stolen goods at Bob's house, Bob is questioned, he confesses, it goes to trial, Bob pleads guilty, the jury is convinced by the evidence, and Bob is sentenced accordingly.
In fact, Bob had not committed the burglary. In fact, he had a provable alibi - he was out committing another burglary (of equivalent severity) elsewhere in town at the time. The original burglary was done by a friend of his, and he was just storing the goods at his house. Given that demonstrating his alibi wouldn't have saved him any prison time, and would have involved fingering his accomplices (which would have damaged his standing in the criminal underworld), he felt that the simplest thing to do was to take the rap for the original burglary.
This is all to illustrate a philosophical point about the word "know" (and "knowledge" etc). A poll:
(ETA Note that the previous convictions don't count when I'm asking whether the legal system knew Bob had committed burglary... I meant to ask "...committed burglary on that day" or something similar. This ETA is before anyone but me has answered this, so all the results reflect this ETA)
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9
Did the legal system know that Bob had committed burglary?
Was the outcome just?
View Answers
Yes - Bob committed a burglary and served a sentence for burglary, your point?
4 (57.1%)
No - Bob was punished for a crime he did not commit.
2 (28.6%)
I don't believe in punishing people for burglary anyway, so No
1 (14.3%)
Furthermore
View Answers
This is a completely ridiculous hypothetical and the legal system wouldn't have acted that way
0 (0.0%)
This is reasonably realistic, at least in terms of how the legal system acted
2 (25.0%)
Ummmm...
6 (75.0%)
no subject
There you go, that was more fun for a discussion of knowledge as a concept :)
(Scare quotes for 'tense' because it's a complex concept!)
no subject
no subject