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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 7:54:47 GMT 10
Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind
John Dewey
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 7:56:56 GMT 10
When the mind withdraws into itself and dispenses with facts it makes only chaos
Edith Hamilton
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:04:31 GMT 10
What anyone has to do who is convinced himself of the reality of any alleged marvel, is first to try, if he can, to diminish the improbability of the marvel by offering an explanation which harmonises it with other parts of our experience; and secondly, to increase the improbability [of the testimony being in error], by accumulating experiences and varying conditions and witnesses
Bro. Henry Sidgwick English philosopher (Society for Psychical Research)
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:14:21 GMT 10
In the discovery of secret things, and in the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and the opinions of philosophical speculators
Bro. Sir W.S. Gilbert
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:16:45 GMT 10
The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are
These “anti-realist" doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what is false, and even in the intelligibility of the notion of objective inquiry. One response to this loss of confidence has been a retreat from the discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness to a quite different sort of discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal of sincerity
Rather than seeking primarily to arrive at accurate representations of a common world, the individual turns toward trying to provide honest representations of himself. Convinced that reality has no inherent nature, which he might hope to identify as the truth about things, he devotes himself to being true to his own nature. It is as though he decides that since it makes no sense to try to be true to the facts, he must therefore try instead to be true to himself
But it is preposterous to imagine that we ourselves are determinate, and hence susceptible both to correct and to incorrect descriptions, while supposing that the ascription of deter- minacy to anything else has been exposed as a mistake. As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them
Moreover, there is nothing in theory, and certainly nothing in experience, to support the extraordinary judgment that it is the truth about himself that is the easiest for a person to know. Facts about ourselves are not peculiarly solid and resistant to skeptical dissolution
Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial — notoriously less stable and less inherent than the natures of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit
Bullshit is unavoidable when circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus, the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life, where people are frequently impelled — whether by their own propensities or by the demands of others — to speak extensively about matters of which they are to some degree ignorantHarry FrankfurtAmerican philosopher ( On Bullshit) The fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bull- shitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him ... He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:29:46 GMT 10
Everybody has opinions: I have them, you have them. And we are all told from the moment we open our eyes, that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Well, that’s horsepuckey, of course. We are not entitled to our opinions; we are entitled to our informed opinions. Without research, without background, without under- standing, it’s nothing. It’s just bibble-babble. It’s like a fart in a wind tunnel, folks
Harlan Ellison
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:42:21 GMT 10
If the soul is impartial in receiving information, it devotes to that information the share of critical investigation the information deserves, and its truth or untruth thus becomes clear. However, if the soul is infected with partisanship for a particular opinion or sect, it accepts without a moment’s hesitation the information that is agreeable to it. Prejudice and partisanship obscure the critical faculty and preclude critical investigation. The results is that falsehoods are accepted and transmitted
Ibn Khaldûn
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:43:32 GMT 10
When the world has got hold of a lie, it is astonishing how hard it is to kill it. You beat it over the head, till it seems to have given up the ghost, and behold! the next day it is as healthy as ever
Bro. Lord Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:46:52 GMT 10
It is a test of true theories not only to account for but to predict phenomena
Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all part- icular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applic- ability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases
The system becomes more coherent as it is further extended. The elements which we require for explaining a new class of facts are already contained in our system. . . . In false theories, the contrary is the case
We cannot observe external things without some degree of thought; nor can we reflect upon our thoughts, without being influenced in the course of our reflection by the things which we have observed
Fundamental ideas are not a consequence of experience, but a result of the particular constitution and activity of the mind, which is independent of all experience in its origin, though constantly combined with experience in its exercise
Hence no force, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending downwards
Every failure is a step to successWilliam WhewellBritish philosopher ( History of Inductive Science) Man is the interpreter of nature, science the right interpretation
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Post by Tamrin on Jun 10, 2013 8:48:44 GMT 10
Sometimes it's not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don't mean
Bob Dylan
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