Survey question ahead...
One of the reasons my posts haven't been quite as substantive lately is that I'm spending a lot of time working on a paper that's got me wondering about a folk epistemological question. To get a rough idea of whether or not I'm right, I wanted to ask a survey question that I'll set up with a scenario:
Suppose that I am throwing a party and I run into my friend Adam earlier in the day. Adam tells me that he thinks I'm the coolest person he has ever met, and that he wouldn't miss my party for the world.
Later on in the day I run into Beth. (Neither of us are hurt). Beth, for unfathomable reasons, is much less enamored of me and would rather not spend the evening in my presence. But I tell her that Adam is going to be at the party, knowing that Beth wants to have Adam's babies (and lots of them), so she would love the chance to get him in a corner of a party and beguile him. She looks at me incredulously and asks, "Are you sure?" I respond, "I know that Adam will be there."
Question: Is my response to Beth true?
Don't over analyze it. It's not a trick question. I just want to know what your natural answer is. Leave a Yes or No in the comments, and feel free to give some explanation if you like.
Assuming I get enough responses to see a trend I'll post later about what that trend indicates.
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1 comment:
I would say no. Despite Adam claiming he'll be there humans are often unreliable and his verbal claim is not enough for you to 'know' he'll be there.
I suppose you can never 'know' he'll be there until he walks through the door.
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