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Timothy Chow on the NF consistency proof and Lean
21 hours ago
02 February 2008
More on the Discourse as narrative
Narrative arc: childhood search for truth (really?) leading to a crisis of doubt and error, compelling D to “think there was no knowledge in the world such as I had previously been led to hope for.” How curious that D’s crisis comes from doubt and error, leading him to his awareness of how little he knew—but that this becomes a virtue by part 4—and certainly, in a very high profile way, by the Meditations. Theoretically, methodological doubt serves to generate counterfactual criteria for determining the truth of a proposition (if I were hallucinating, would p still be true), but autobiographically, that same doubt is a personal crisis that he does not know anything. It reminds the reader how much D is like Socrates. I’m betting that he intended that....
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2 comments:
I think D was very positive about anything he did. D's whole concept of thinking and knowledge was becoming too complex and I know that many people feel it's stupid to question what is but I think its smart. I didn't see how D's ability to do this made him free to judge, when later on in the chapter D did not like to be judged.
"How curious that D’s crisis comes from doubt and error, leading him to his awareness of how little he knew"
As with all people, their own failures are the only things that lead them to question their methods and understanding of life. This is a human element of D that I feel is often lost through either translation or disregard. The topics he discusses, in most cases are very true to the human experience in general and can be applicable in any time period.
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