Subject: Steve Carell (Michael) On Science From: Joseph William Lee Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:13:06 -0500 (EST) (On knowing science) "Michael: Yeah... you are... ah, so right. They had visual aids. And all we had were the facts. You don't go to the science museum and get handed a pamphlet on electricity. You go to the science museum and you put your hand on a metal ball, your hair sticks up straight... and you know science" ----- Just got done reading the articles/papers on what is science and then was watching The Office and this was said. Thought I would share. Seems that Michael would agree with some that science is not about the cold hard facts but more about the experiences and understanding of natural phenomena. ======================================================================== Subject: Re: Steve Carell (Michael) On Science From: "William J. Rapaport" Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:54:49 -0500 (EST) Joseph William Lee wrote: "Michael:...You go to the science museum and you put your hand on a metal ball, your hair sticks up straight... and you know science" Nice distinction. Philosophers, who always seem to be analyzing things, distinguish between several different kinds of knowledge, including: knowledge by acquaintance: the kind of first-person experiential knowledge in the example above propositional knowledge, or knowing that something is the ase procedural knowledge, or knowing how to do something knowing who someone or something is. See: Fumerton, Richard, "Knowledge by Acquaintance vs. Description", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2009/entries/knowledge-acquaindescrip/ Also see: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/663/F08/whatiskr.html#whatiskn