Papers and Posters.

Ok, one down and one to go. It’s ten-to-two in the morning and I just finished a seven page paper for my Epistemology class. If you don’t know what Epistemology is, and are too lazy to Google/Wikipedia it, it is the philosophical inquest into knowledge; what it means to know something and how we can come to know something. The paper itself was on Robert Nozick’s conditions for knowledge and how they serve to overcome the skeptic’s challenges through the tracking of a reliable belief forming processes and the denial of the closure principle which subsequently results in the denial of Modus Ponens as a means of extending knowledge. But I see that you’ve already lost interest.


Yes, that’s right. I know you. I know that you just basically skipped over that last part, but that’s ok. I know that were I to post a section of my paper, just a paragraph or two, you’d start into it well intentioned enough, but you’ll be flipping back up to the big text all too soon. That’s because when you’re reading or focusing on something that you’re not really interested in, there’s this feeling like someone is sticking their invisible finger into your eyeball and rubbing the back of your retinas causing your vision and subsequently your concentration to blur. Don’t believe me, just go ahead and read this fine selection from my recently finished dissertation:

The original conditions for knowledge are that (1) p is true and (2) S believes that p. However, these somewhat historical conditions allow for the cases that Gettier brought up to show that there were things that someone could know, but be wrong about knowing. Nozick adds two more conditions to help overcome this problem. These two conditions are: (3) If p were not true, S would not believe that p (~p ->~[S believes that p]) and (4) If p is true then S believes that p is true (p -> S believes that p, or, condition 1 -> condition2).



The third condition entails that if the thing in question (p) were not true, then it is not the case that the person claiming to have the knowledge(S) would believe in it (p). This is a claim to help in the justification of (2). It also helps in the Gettier cases where p is justified but false, and where q is true but unjustified. Here, S would still have believed p or q even if q and hence also p or q are false. With the addition of condition (3), we can see that what formerly constituted knowledge now does not. Meaning that in the Gettier cases, the instances described are not actually knowledge, though they may at the time seem like it.



The fourth condition is a subjunctive linking between the first two conditions. This in turn makes it a stronger statement that, “Not only is p true and S believes it, but if it were true he would believe it” (352). That is to say, p being true helps cause the belief in p. Basically, this is to say that were things slightly different but p still true, than S would still believe in p. However, it is still possible to for someone to have contradicting beliefs, so Nozick amends the fourth condition to include the negation of the opposite. Basically, that p -> S believes that p and not that (S believes ~p). This hardly poses a challenge as contradicting truths about the world are hard to come by.

There you go. Hope you enjoyed. Or did you just skim over and jump to this spot? Oh well, I’ll stop being a prick, and spare you from describing the twelve page Philosophy of History paper that I have to write tomorrow on Marxist approaches to historical study and in turn Historical Materialism… But that’s an entire incredibly dry blog-post in and of itself.

On much a much more exciting note, I got a new tattoo yesterday done by the lovely Catra at I-Kandy, where I work most of my days away. The tattoo is of a girl, almost pinup style, from an art nouveau absinthe poster for Absinthe Blanqui, printed sometime between 1898 and 1901. The printer was L.Revon et Cie, and the artist's signature "Nover" is a mystery - no designer by that name is recorded. Since however Nover is a palindrome of Revon, it’s likely that the artist was Revon himself or someone who worked for him.

The position of the girl's head and the design of her hair in sketches for this poster are reminiscent of Privat-Livemont's 1896 poster for Absinthe Robette, and it is possible that this was modified in the final version specifically so that the Blanqui poster did not too closely resemble Privat-Livemont's design. However, the similarities are plain to see.And what’s really sweet is that when I get back from Europe, Cat is going to do the Privat-Livemont girl on the other side of my stomach, mirroring this one. I can’t wait until all the shading, color, and depth are given to her, Cat's done an amazing job. Here’s a pic… It’s only the outline so far, but man is it beautiful…However I do have to say, getting it done really did suck. It was far from the worst tattoo I’ve had, but it was basically like having my side tattoo worked on. Very very sharp tearing sensations working their way around sensitive sensitive skin. Joy. But it’s worth it… That and I have a very low pain threshold so bitching about pain is common for me. Oh, and I suppose I’ll throw a pic of my new brand up as well…

This was the result of me teaching Amus how to brand. It took her a little bit to get the hang of it, but she turned out a wonderful first brand, and I’m pleased with it. Branding. Now there’s a pain that’s just loveable. As soon as the cautery pen hits the skin your limb tries to back away, but there’s nowhere to back away to and you are lost to the sensation of your skin vaporizing away at 2200°F. And the smell, oh how I love the smell… It’s like burnt hair but fleshier… meatier… gamier… Hmm, I probably shouldn’t continue this vein of thought.

Anyways, as I now must make my way to bed, and prepare for another paper, I shall curl up with giddiness as it’s only 13 days ‘till I leave for Europe and can be with my beautiful Samantha again!!! Oh, and here’s a video clip of the branding... Enjoy!