How is any knowlegde possible if you can't rule out the incompatibilities?

Question

If you "know" what it takes to individuate a particular kind of finch-- you check every mark, the beak shape, the wing breadth, the color of the head-- how do you know you're not just looking at a carefully designed robot, or a different kind of finch which has the same visible features that you sought out?

So the DNA indicates irrefutably? How do you rule out the possibiliity that the lab results weren't mistaken, or that the DNA distinguishes a multiplicity of birds, some of which are alien instruments designed to look LIKE a finch, at the current level of our sciences, but is actually a bomb in disguise?

Would 'curve smoothing' make "all swans are white" analytic prior to finding black ones?

Yes, but if the bird is actually a bomb, you don't KNOW anything, whether you have reason to believe it or otherwise, and it's always the latter.

Your inability to understand the limit of perception disturbs me even more.

Call it whatever you like, but it's not knowledge, especially if there's a potential infinity of incompatible facts about the object that we cannot rule out.

Answer 1

DNA, for your example of a finch. Any other examples we could try to solve?

Answer 2

Knowledge takes into account what you are calling "incompatibilities". If they are significant then a (previous) "conclusion" is not (or no longer) valid.

And certainly you can't "rule out" incompatibilities, but does that include the assumption that you will always find them?

As to the finch, a robot bird flying around your back yard or local woods is VERY unlikely. As to an "ideal" finch as per some specific description - such a bird does not exist. Every finch has subtle, minor variations from that idea described in the bird book(s).

Answer 3

It would be then impossible
But we can rule out the incompatibilities after massive process of elimination using the determining principle of the causes that govern the reality of the finch. The formal cause(idea of the finch) as impressed to the material cause(the body of the finch),the efficient cause(moving cause of the finch), and the final cause-the ultimate robot finch!
Having analyzed these causes, we then can admit, that is indeed a robot finch
Ruling out the incompatibilities, we all know that all living creations have the genuine adaptability and capability for constant change, spontaneity in terms but not repitition. A living creation of divine nature possesses this characteristic.

A robot finch may fool us showing the same characteristic of change but it won't be spontaneous, it will be characterized by repitition however it was programmed to be. From winking of its eyes to flopping its wings or name it, you can.

Furthermore a genuine finch will react upon sensation. Given for example that you're scared it is a robot finch, lets examine if this finch would react to its instinct to hunger, throwing birdseeds nearby it. A robot wouldn't react. A real one will, as the picture of the birdseeds being visualized in the bird's brain is something palatable to taste.
Lol. Pardon me for the explanation, i find it funny, and naive but close enough to touch basis philosophically, to me anyway.

Answer 4

Because a fact in science is a flexible thing:

Stephen Jay Gould:
"In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent." I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms."

Answer 5

It is clear that your concern about bombs hidden in birds indicates that you may very likely have an incompatibility with perceiving reality. If you haven't gone off your meds, then you probably need some - SERIOUSLY! Find someone competent (mental health professional) to whom you can describe these concerns. Hopefully they will be able to help you. Sorry if this offends you.

Answer 6

It's called curve smoothing. You pick the most dependable marking(s) of breed.

Answer 7

gosh..................golly..........I don,t know..............maybe I'm not really me..........maybe I,m not really answering this question.......maybe we all don,t really exist at all........maybe just in your imagination?????........