Reply #16: J.L Austin sez... [View All]

[infinitehangover]

Austin (English-language-based Philosophy professor) had this observation about statements such as "I know..." or "I believe...". WHen one utters "I know that Hydrogen is the less dense element.", one would ask "How do you know that?". However if one states "I believe petting a dog too early in the morning is a bad gesture" the other would ask "Why do you believe that?"
The response to a statement and the grammatical structure is key to understanding our shared usage of our language.
To go a bit further one might be easily able to deduce that a 'How' is much easier to locate, as it tends to be tangible. In our case a chemistry book would be the 'How'. However a 'Why' is much harder to define. One could go as far as saying subjective. But I'm still having issues as to whether objective exists...