The situation:
Imagine that you bump into a friend while waiting for a
train or bus. You’re sitting on a bench flipping through
your philosophy notebook, and your friend notices a
drawing of a raft and a drawing of a pyramid – which
you doodled while listening to the Unit 7 lecture.
“What course is that for?,” your friend asks, pointing at
the pictures.
“Oh, it’s for my philosophy class,” you reply, and quickly
close the notebook, hoping the conversation will move
on to something else.
“You’re a lousy artist,” your friend says with a wry smile.
“Philosophy, huh?,” your friend continues. “I never took
philosophy. What’s a raft and a pyramid got to do with
philosophy anyway?”
“Oh, I don’t know… It’s about knowledge. It’s
complicated,” you say, still hoping to talk about
something else. Anything else!
“Yeah, fine, whatever,” your friend presses on, “It can’t
be that complicated. So what do rafts and pyramids
have to do with knowledge? Come on. You’re the
philosopher.”
“Well…,” you begin, sheepishly, “You ever heard
of epistemology?…”
Your friend cuts you off. “Now don’t go gettin’ all fancy
on me. Keep it simple. Just give it to me straight…”
The question:
How would you answer your friend’s query?
What do the images of the raft and the pyramid have to
do with the nature of knowledge?
