Sunday 12 November 2017

The difference between knowledge, belief and expectation.

Tibor Molnar will discuss the difference between knowledge, belief and expectation.
Tibor Molnar studied Chemical Engineering at UNSW in the 1960s, and then forged a career in industrial chemistry, IT and business. Retired in the early 2000s, he is today a polymath with a wide range of interests: from physics and neuroscience to AI and philosophy. He is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney, and teaches a course –Philosophy for Science: Making Sense of the Physical World – at the University’s Centre for Continuing Education.
But more than all of that, Tibor is an entertainer at least as much as a philosopher, providing an evening to be savoured.
Plato categorised ‘knowledge’ as “justified true belief”; but should we ‘believe’ him? After all, how do we ‘justify’ believing that something is ‘justified’? How do we establish that something is ‘true’, and hence that we may claim to ‘know’ it? Don’t we ‘believe’ that all our beliefs are ‘justified’? (Why else would we ‘believe’ them)? And doesn’t ‘understanding’ have something to do with it?
Contemporary epistemology – theory of knowledge – is very confused; and Plato is in no small part responsible. In a very short talk, Tibor Molnar will tell you everything he ‘knows’! (Then he’ll tell you about expectation, belief, understanding, justification, logic, validity, truth, facts, …)
Entry to this event will be $5.00 for supporter members of Sydney Atheists and $10.00 for non supporter attendees. Annual Supporter membership is only $20. To become a supporter member, please go to:http://www.sydneyatheists.org/p/donations-and-membership.html
To buy advance purchase tickets for non financial members, please go to https://www.trybooking.com/SHUR
Our talk events are held at the Function Room at Club Redfern:
2nd Floor, 159 Redfern St
REDFERN, NSW 2000
The entrance is 20 metres across Gibbons Street from Redfern Station under the SPAR sign. You can walk up the stairs, the escalator or use the elevator to the 2nd floor where the club is located. The outside of the venue is shown below.
Parking is available in the shopping complex and adjacent streets.

Website: https://www.meetup.com/sydneyatheists/events/242073524/