The semantic distinction between uses of the words belief and knowledge certainly occurs, however, because it is (even partly) external, it ceases to be a useful distinction.
Knowledge implies a way to verify beliefs outside beliefs. Given the arguments laid above, there is no such way.
Truth is not the same as “verification”. Verification is an internal concept. It’s about what information you have in your mind. But truth is external. So you may call it “not useful” because any agent can only act on the information he has, on his internal state. But truth (or more broadly, the external world) is a sort of limit, a vanishing point, of justification. Degree of justification seems be about how likely something is true, and with more and more evidence, that probability goes toward 0 or 1.
I agree that the truth/verification distinction holds and didn’t mean to imply the contrary.
Also, truth being a vanishing point or limit of justification reinvokes the false distinction between belief/knowledge (truth) that I began with.
The main claim is that the external world provides no such limit. Justification for belief does not (and cannot) rely on coherence with the external world because we are only ever inside the “world” of the internal—that is, we are stuck inside our beliefs and perceptions and never get beyond them into the external world. As such, we have no way to somehow compare our justified beliefs with the external world precisely because we have no access to it—we only have a belief that coheres with another belief already held.
A quick and dirty way to illustrate this point:
A: We can’t know that the stone that’s there truly is there in reality.
B: But if I throw it at you and you feel pain, doesn’t that prove it’s real?
A: The pain is just another perception—still within my mind—not proof of the stone’s external existence.
The external world outside of our perceptions cannot be touched by any internal mechanism (belief, perception, justification, verification, etc.) precisely because it is outside. As such, we have no conceivable access to it. Whatever limits there are, they are not found in the external world and only ever found in our internal world—after all, how can you find (refer, perceive, believe, etc.) anything that in its definition is incapable of being found? We can’t nor could we ever. Therefore, the distinction between truth/knowledge (and internal/external) that is commonly used is unnecessary at best and illusory at worst.
Truth is not the same as “verification”. Verification is an internal concept. It’s about what information you have in your mind. But truth is external. So you may call it “not useful” because any agent can only act on the information he has, on his internal state. But truth (or more broadly, the external world) is a sort of limit, a vanishing point, of justification. Degree of justification seems be about how likely something is true, and with more and more evidence, that probability goes toward 0 or 1.
I agree that the truth/verification distinction holds and didn’t mean to imply the contrary.
Also, truth being a vanishing point or limit of justification reinvokes the false distinction between belief/knowledge (truth) that I began with.
The main claim is that the external world provides no such limit. Justification for belief does not (and cannot) rely on coherence with the external world because we are only ever inside the “world” of the internal—that is, we are stuck inside our beliefs and perceptions and never get beyond them into the external world. As such, we have no way to somehow compare our justified beliefs with the external world precisely because we have no access to it—we only have a belief that coheres with another belief already held.
A quick and dirty way to illustrate this point:
A: We can’t know that the stone that’s there truly is there in reality.
B: But if I throw it at you and you feel pain, doesn’t that prove it’s real?
A: The pain is just another perception—still within my mind—not proof of the stone’s external existence.
The external world outside of our perceptions cannot be touched by any internal mechanism (belief, perception, justification, verification, etc.) precisely because it is outside. As such, we have no conceivable access to it. Whatever limits there are, they are not found in the external world and only ever found in our internal world—after all, how can you find (refer, perceive, believe, etc.) anything that in its definition is incapable of being found? We can’t nor could we ever. Therefore, the distinction between truth/knowledge (and internal/external) that is commonly used is unnecessary at best and illusory at worst.