On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:52:04 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I am not so certain about that.
> 
> Actually, I'd go so far as to wonder whether it makes sense to talk
> about knowledge as "instinctive".  What is it that everyone (modulo
> birth defects etc) knows when they're born? That's instinct. Knowing how
> to *learn* a language is instinctive, but is it really knowledge? Is a
> falling pebble's compliance with the laws of gravity caused by
> instinctive knowledge of gravity by the pebble? If not, why is knowing
> how to learn a language "knowledge"? 

There are good ways and bad ways to learn language.  That we have an 
instinct for it now without being taught how to learn a language implies 
an instinctive knowledge.

> Does yanking your hand out of the
> fire have anything to do with knowing it's hot?

It certainly has something to do with knowing "I'm in pain" and how to 
make he pain go away.  Pain avoidance is IMHO a form of instinctive 
knowledge.

> And certainly a Christian's knowledge of the existence of God isn't
> instinctive, or people wouldn't take children to Sunday School and read
> passages out of the bible. Perhaps the tendency to religion or other
> such stories is instinctive, but again is that "knowledge" or just a
> natural tendency?

Some people come to that conclusion without formal training.  I know 
several who are in that category.  I myself always had a particular idea 
about how the universe worked that nobody taught me, nor really that I 
figured out myself, I just seemed to know it.  Then I found that there 
were others who had a similar view and that it had a name.  Since then, 
I've kinda drifted because the "formal" part of that line of thinking 
didn't mesh as well as I thought it did.

Jim

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