Re: VMs: Viola tricolor

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi William,

At 11:07 25/05/2004 +0100, William Edmondson wrote:
> Ignotum per ignotius

AKA "the unknown explained by the still more unknown" (i.e. "sorry, but 
your supposed explanation didn't move me forward one jot").

Short digression: here in VMsLand we discuss neither *episteme* ("that 
which can be known with certainty"), nor *the unknown* ("that which is not 
known at all") but instead *uncertain knowledge* ("unreliable [but possibly 
correct] knowledge").

Assuming that the plant pictures are there solely for identification 
purposes doesn't make that assumption true - it remains one of a large 
number of actively-backed VMs-related hypotheses and conjectures, none of 
which (despite strenuous efforts) has yet been confirmed or refuted. All of 
which is a bit of a pain, but there you go. :-o

The VMs has two main aspects - a cryptographic side and a historical side. 
I contend that we will have to understand both of them in order to resolve 
its mysteries - but this means we must integrate both certain and uncertain 
knowledges into our repertoires.

The "Ionian Enchantment" is Gerald Holton's term for the idea that 
everything is reducible to (the logic of) science: yet this only posits one 
type of knowledge - episteme, certain knowledge. Is it really the case that 
we can, for example, "do history" (where evidence is often fragmentary and 
deceptive), but relying only on certain knowledge? I think not.

You seem to be an expert at solving problems using cognitivist thinking and 
methodologies, and have decided to apply that skill to an intriguing 
historical mystery. Good for you - but please understand (a) that the kind 
of certainties this kind of mindset typically relies upon are in 
desperately short supply here (we're not even sure what the alphabet is, 
nor if our transcriptions capture all the nuances we'd need); and (b) that 
we are swimming in a sea of overlapping (ie, not all mutually exclusive) 
uncertainties.

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling..... 


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