Friday, January 13, 2006
You may be wrong.
This is just a crazy rant. You can ignore it.
I have a point, but it'll take a bit of reasoning to fully express the idea that I wish to get across.
A few basic ideas that must be accepted. Some of these may be less relevant than others - remember this is a rant, I might get a bit crazy.
1. There is a definite truth, though we may not know it (none of this "existence is an illution" or "truth is relative" junk). We accept that any assumption, hypothesis, belief, etc is either true or not true based on the facts of reality which stand on their own reguardless of human perception. The state of a thing can change over time, but at any given instant, there is a definite state, though we may be unable to determine what it is/was/will be. An event either happened or did not happen though accounts of the event may change thus becoming more detached from reality which is constant.
2. Our human capacity for knowledge and understanding is limited, though we may be unable to determine or practically reach this limit. This applies to an individual as well as the collective body of human life. Our physical brains are finite and must have some finite capacity/capability.
3. Every human being has a personal world-view or philosophy that is composed of what that person accepts as reality.
4. Every society has a common philosophy that is made up of the average or commonly accepted points in the philosophies of each member of that society. This common philosophy may be weigthed by influence - a more influential/vocal person may contribute more to the common philosophy than the less influential.
5. It has been demonstrated throughout history that these philosophies (personal and common) contain factual errors - they can be wrong. A wise person/society will adapt the philosophy to fit truth as it is discovered - with, of course, a proper level of scepticism requiring a certain amount of "proof". This is constantly happening to us as individuals and our society.
6. What is popular is not always right; what is right is not always popular. Truth exists as it is reguardless of popular opinion.
7. People can be (are) largely driven by emotional factors and are often unaware of their own true motives. A big one is pride. (I am using the term "emotion" to refer to any motivation that is not based on the desire to uncover factual reality and which may be counterproductive to this pursuit)
8. Appearances are deceiving. What appears to be true may be partially or totally false.
9. People are(can be) stupid. This includes me and you, though we rarely recognize or acknowledge it of ourselves. We are willing to accept an idea without logical reasoning if it appeals to our emotions/desires.
10. People are(can be) smart. With proper logic and detachment from emotional factors, it is possible to refine one's philosophy in order for it to reach a state closer to actual reality.
11. People are selfish. They will hold, defend, and propogate an idea which they may subconciously (or conciously) know to be false if doing so achieves some personal gain. This is obviously counterproductive in reguards to achieveing a more realistic philosophy.
Ok, I think that's about enough to get my point across. If you've read this far, then perhaps you are ready for the point of this post.
The title is "You may be wrong", but the conclution that I now derive is that you ARE wrong.
It is impossible for you or me to have an entirely realistic world-view. There are undoubtedly some beliefs that you and I hold which are false.
It is wise to examine our world-views piece-by-piece in order to determine why we believe what we believe - what facts, what logic is behind each belief - what emotions are behind each belief. To what philosophies do we subscribe simply because it is "public opinion" or some such thing.
Can you accept that a certain philosophy of yours may be false.
Can you accept that a certain philosophy that someone else holds (which perhaps you have scoffed at) may be true(or close to it, we must accept varying degrees of truth).
It seems very arrogant to believe that one's own world-view is entirely accurate.
There are countless examples of this sort of thing throughout history. I will mention a few as they come to me - and I am not talking about superstitious beliefs, I am talking about generally accepted scientific principles.
It was once believed that solid glass is actually a slow moving fluid. This was taught in science texts and generally reguarded as true. It is now believed that solid glass does not flow at all, but that traditional glaziers normally produced glass that would be thicker on one side and would generally align the glass with the thicker end down (perhaps for structural reasons). This gives the appearance that the glass has "flowed" down over time. Sometimes, in fact, a piece of glass is discovered which is thicker at the top than at the bottom - how could flowing account for that.
It was once taught that the earth was the center of the solar system and all the planets, the sun, and the moon revolved around the earth. Today, this is obviously not true. The same goes for the earth being flat. A side note here: it is often speculated that this is in some way related to the teaching of the Christian Bible - this is not true. While christians would have believed this along with everyone else in the world, it is not biblical.
The idea of Spontaneous Generation was once commonly thought to be true - that life could emerge spontaneously from non-living things. For example it was once believed that rats were spontaneously generated from piles of rags, mice from grain, maggots from meat. Aristotle taught this. It is now known to be completely false.
There are examples of such things today. There are many small ones which make shows like "The Myth Busters" interresting. There are bigger ones, but they can be more subtle - otherwise they would be determined to be false and dismissed.
I have a point, but it'll take a bit of reasoning to fully express the idea that I wish to get across.
A few basic ideas that must be accepted. Some of these may be less relevant than others - remember this is a rant, I might get a bit crazy.
1. There is a definite truth, though we may not know it (none of this "existence is an illution" or "truth is relative" junk). We accept that any assumption, hypothesis, belief, etc is either true or not true based on the facts of reality which stand on their own reguardless of human perception. The state of a thing can change over time, but at any given instant, there is a definite state, though we may be unable to determine what it is/was/will be. An event either happened or did not happen though accounts of the event may change thus becoming more detached from reality which is constant.
2. Our human capacity for knowledge and understanding is limited, though we may be unable to determine or practically reach this limit. This applies to an individual as well as the collective body of human life. Our physical brains are finite and must have some finite capacity/capability.
3. Every human being has a personal world-view or philosophy that is composed of what that person accepts as reality.
4. Every society has a common philosophy that is made up of the average or commonly accepted points in the philosophies of each member of that society. This common philosophy may be weigthed by influence - a more influential/vocal person may contribute more to the common philosophy than the less influential.
5. It has been demonstrated throughout history that these philosophies (personal and common) contain factual errors - they can be wrong. A wise person/society will adapt the philosophy to fit truth as it is discovered - with, of course, a proper level of scepticism requiring a certain amount of "proof". This is constantly happening to us as individuals and our society.
6. What is popular is not always right; what is right is not always popular. Truth exists as it is reguardless of popular opinion.
7. People can be (are) largely driven by emotional factors and are often unaware of their own true motives. A big one is pride. (I am using the term "emotion" to refer to any motivation that is not based on the desire to uncover factual reality and which may be counterproductive to this pursuit)
8. Appearances are deceiving. What appears to be true may be partially or totally false.
9. People are(can be) stupid. This includes me and you, though we rarely recognize or acknowledge it of ourselves. We are willing to accept an idea without logical reasoning if it appeals to our emotions/desires.
10. People are(can be) smart. With proper logic and detachment from emotional factors, it is possible to refine one's philosophy in order for it to reach a state closer to actual reality.
11. People are selfish. They will hold, defend, and propogate an idea which they may subconciously (or conciously) know to be false if doing so achieves some personal gain. This is obviously counterproductive in reguards to achieveing a more realistic philosophy.
Ok, I think that's about enough to get my point across. If you've read this far, then perhaps you are ready for the point of this post.
The title is "You may be wrong", but the conclution that I now derive is that you ARE wrong.
It is impossible for you or me to have an entirely realistic world-view. There are undoubtedly some beliefs that you and I hold which are false.
It is wise to examine our world-views piece-by-piece in order to determine why we believe what we believe - what facts, what logic is behind each belief - what emotions are behind each belief. To what philosophies do we subscribe simply because it is "public opinion" or some such thing.
Can you accept that a certain philosophy of yours may be false.
Can you accept that a certain philosophy that someone else holds (which perhaps you have scoffed at) may be true(or close to it, we must accept varying degrees of truth).
It seems very arrogant to believe that one's own world-view is entirely accurate.
There are countless examples of this sort of thing throughout history. I will mention a few as they come to me - and I am not talking about superstitious beliefs, I am talking about generally accepted scientific principles.
It was once believed that solid glass is actually a slow moving fluid. This was taught in science texts and generally reguarded as true. It is now believed that solid glass does not flow at all, but that traditional glaziers normally produced glass that would be thicker on one side and would generally align the glass with the thicker end down (perhaps for structural reasons). This gives the appearance that the glass has "flowed" down over time. Sometimes, in fact, a piece of glass is discovered which is thicker at the top than at the bottom - how could flowing account for that.
It was once taught that the earth was the center of the solar system and all the planets, the sun, and the moon revolved around the earth. Today, this is obviously not true. The same goes for the earth being flat. A side note here: it is often speculated that this is in some way related to the teaching of the Christian Bible - this is not true. While christians would have believed this along with everyone else in the world, it is not biblical.
The idea of Spontaneous Generation was once commonly thought to be true - that life could emerge spontaneously from non-living things. For example it was once believed that rats were spontaneously generated from piles of rags, mice from grain, maggots from meat. Aristotle taught this. It is now known to be completely false.
There are examples of such things today. There are many small ones which make shows like "The Myth Busters" interresting. There are bigger ones, but they can be more subtle - otherwise they would be determined to be false and dismissed.
