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How do you differentiate between knowledge and belief? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 month ago by an_onanist@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I'm not interested in what the dictionary says or a textbook definition I'm interested in your personal distinction between the two ideas. How do you decide to put an idea in one category versus the other? I'm not interested in the abstract concepts like 'objective truth' I want to know how it works in real life for you.

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I'm a Marxist-Leninist, so the dialectical theory of knowledge. What starts as ideas are tested and confirmed or denied in reality, which then sharpens ideas to be retested and confirmed or denied in reality again, in a spiral. Ideas come from real, material conditions, and it is through this cycle that theory meets practice, sharpening each more effectively.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What's Marxism have to do with it? Sounds exactly like the scientific method to me. Applying it to politics is an unnecessary step in this discussion.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

How familiar are you with Dialectical Materialism? That's a Marxist conception, very similar to the scientific method. Marx wasn't just an advocate for Socialized production and eventually Communism out of any moral superiority to Capitalism, but because he applied Dialectical and Historical Materialist analysis to Capitalism to predict where it was headed: monopoly and centralized syndicates, ripe for siezure and public planning.

The Dialectical theory of knowledge is similar to an endless refinement and spiral of the scientific method.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not familiar at all, that's why I asked! Thanks, I'll have to read some.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

My favorite primer is Elementary Principles of Philosophy, it's great and starts from the very beginning.

[–] an_onanist@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What about the ideas that can be neither confirmed nor denied like the existence of extraterrestrial life or a machine of 100% efficiency?

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago

Why believe in it beyond the conception that it's possible?