I was Wondering....

[Catholicism]

Do we know what an apple is?

Just wondering what people think, just post yes or no if you want.

 

[elman]

Do we know what an apple is?

Just wondering what people think, just post yes or no if you want.

I know what it looks like, what it tastes like, but do I know everything about an apple or anything else? No.

 

[Soul_Searcher]

Hi Catholicism,

As defined, yes, I know what an apple is.

 

[Lilly of the Valley]

Yes

 

[sbhaden]

And.... what is the point of this question?

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

Do we know what an apple is?

I can't answer for us all.

For the first time(it was my first experience concerning the subject matter of this OP, apple), my parents(they told me so repeatedly that the idea got entrenched in my mind) brought near me(I think therefore I am) something, red in color(i was told so and others seemed to corroborate with it), and told me that it is tasty and delicious(by now I had an idea of how tasty and delicious would feel like due to my past experiences in such situations) and gave it to me to eat it(my fandamental nature, which I would have done even if my parents wouldn't teach me).

I trusted(my survival instincts sent an 'all clear' signal to my brain) them since they were quite predictable in that they seemed to not do things that would put my survival in jeopardy but instead did things that brought me joy(the feeling I could associate with similar past events). So I took it and ate it, and the taste got registered in my collective memory(which was not just a remembering machine but also seemed to attach feelings to those remembrances) and in fact it was tasty and delicious.
I asked them "What is this?"
They told me "It is a fruit. Remember the peach you had last week?"
"Yes I do, but it had a different taste than this?!"

"Because it is a different fruit. Are you excited to know by what name it is called?"

"Yes, I am".
"It is called apple, my dear".

And that was my first encounter with an apple. Even today I know an apple by the unique feeling it brings to memmory.

As a sidenote, there is no native word in our mother tongue for it. We call it apple too.

 

[full_of_faith]

yes

 

[:æ:]

Do we know what an apple is?

Just wondering what people think, just post yes or no if you want.

An apple is an idea. It is a loosely defined set of particular characteristics that exists as a concept in our minds.

With that idea established, we can then find objects in reality that we feel exhibit those characteristics closely enough to affix to each of them the label "apple."

In other words, when we say "that is an apple," what we are really saying is "that object has characteristics that correspond to my idea of what an apple is."

 

[StrugglingSceptic]

An apple is an idea.

No, it isn't. An apple is a piece of fruit that I eat from time to time. Since I find myself unable to get sustenance from ideas alone, an apple can certainly not be an idea, unless we are to become idealists.

It is a loosely defined set of particular characteristics that exists as a concept in our minds.

Such a thing does not sound very tasty to me, though the objects with those characteristics, and which are instances of that concept, do.

With that idea established, we can then find objects in reality that we feel exhibit those characteristics closely enough to affix to each of them the label "apple."

Yes, and those objects are apples.

In other words, when we say "that is an apple," what we are really saying is "that object has characteristics that correspond to my idea of what an apple is."

The second seems an acceptable paraphrase of the first, though rather pointless.

As to the OP, I am interested in what motivates this question. In an everyday sense, I know what an apple is. In suitably stricter senses, such as Do I have a scientific definition of "apple", I do not.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Do we know what an apple is?

Just wondering what people think, just post yes or no if you want.

I think we know quite a bit about apples. Since I don't believe one needs infinitely detailed knowledge about apples in order to claim that we know what they are, I'll have to answer "yes".

 

[one love]

How very immature.

 

[Dylock]

i know of no apple. I believe that the red thing i hold in my hand that has certain color texture and taste appears to be an apple. i cannot have true knowledge of an apple.
<3 matrix theory

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

i know of no apple. I believe that the red thing i hold in my hand that has certain color texture and taste appears to be an apple. i cannot have true knowledge of an apple.
<3 matrix theory

To know an apple is to be an apple

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

i know of no apple. I believe that the red thing i hold in my hand that has certain color texture and taste appears to be an apple. i cannot have true knowledge of an apple.
<3 matrix theory

Having true knowledge means the removal of knower-known duality, but ironically, the common definition of knowledge(of something other than the knower) doesn't hold good then.

Perfect knowledge is when the knower, known, and the knowledge are one and the same. It is inconceivable.

 

[Telephone]

Do we know what an apple is?

To know the apple you must first accept it as your saviour, you must accept that the apple died at the teeth of Adam for all our sins and that after its death it rose from its pips in the form of a tree.

All other fruit are false fruit, those who claim to 'know' peaches are simply deluded.

 

[Eudaimonist]

To know an apple is to be an apple

Apples don't seem to know much of anything...

 

[adifferentview]

Do we know what an apple is?

Just wondering what people think, just post yes or no if you want.

If we didn't know what an apple was, we would have asked you to define the word apple.

It is clear to me that since no one asked you to define the word apple (though providing defenitions of their own) everyone has their own conception or idea of an apple.

Now what esle is funny is that no one is saying what an apple actually is, but rather how they see it or how it effects them. pay careful attention to this because other than finding out how it will effect people, you are not going to find out much more than that.

Basically the only information that you will get on this forum is what an apple is in everyone's own mind and how it effects them. If you are trying to find the true nature of something or some inherent truth about an apple, you won't find any. Ultimately we are human therefore all inherent truth about something is oblivious to us and the only truth is how the object realates to us.

Confused about what i said? send me a PM

 

[Born_to_Lose_Live_to_Win]

Apples don't seem to know much of anything...

I agree.

I was talking in this sense---> 'If I want to have perfect knowledge about you, I have to be you.'

Something like 'To know the Sun is to be the Sun'.

Again, the sun also doesn't seem to know much of anything. But my statement was intended to prove that perfect knowledge of anything is impossible.

The subject knowing the object cannot be perfect knowledge. It can be almost perfect, like 99.999%. But to reach 100% is to deny the subject-object duality. But ironically, then, there is no knowledge(of anything) in the traditionally accepted sense of the word.

 

[Osiris]

No, it isn't. An apple is a piece of fruit that I eat from time to time. Since I find myself unable to get sustenance from ideas alone, an apple can certainly not be an idea, unless we are to become idealists.

actually, :ae: has a point...

an apple is an idea... when we say 'an apple' we are not talking about a specific apple, we are not holding an apple and talking about an actual piece of fruit.

when we say an apple, we we are referring to the abstract idea of what an apple is...

when we say, i am eating 'this' apple that i have in my hand... we are referring to an actual fruit which the abstract idea points to...

 

[Eudaimonist]

The subject knowing the object cannot be perfect knowledge. It can be almost perfect, like 99.999%. But to reach 100% is to deny the subject-object duality. But ironically, then, there is no knowledge(of anything) in the traditionally accepted sense of the word.

I have to wonder what "perfect" knowledge really means in this context, and if it can be meaningfully defined at all.