Stuart Hampshire maintain that, faced with
any situation, one can always choose at least between trying to do
something and letting things take their course.
Always?
If it makes
sense to say that there is an external world, then to know it, in the
descriptive usage of 'know', is not to alter it.
As for the other usage of
'know' - the pragmatic, in which 'I know what I shall do' is akin to
'I know what to do', and registers not a piece of information but a
decision to alter things in a certain way - would it not wither if psychophysiology advanced far enough?
For, in that event, may not my
resolution to act or not to act resemble more and more the recommendation of Canute's courtiers?
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