From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Tue Sep 02 2003 - 11:49:39 MDT
Hmm. I personally would substitute the phrase 'To the best of my
knowledge' for the phrase 'I believe'. Maybe this is a semantic quibble
but I have to ask if it is possible for anyone to 'believe' that they do
not exist. (I'm not a great fan of the Matrix you will gather).
Similarly, is it possible to believe that one's senses are not mostly
trustworthy? For my part, I seem to (mostly) do quite a good job of not
walking into walls and so on.
Likewise, apart from the conundrum of 'existence' is it possible to
believe that there is anything which can never be explained? I need to
think about this one a lot more but at the moment I'm inclined to think
that such a thing could not be perceived in the first place.
Everything hinges upon the definition of the word 'belief' I suppose.
Best Regards
Blunderov
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf
Of Calvin Ashmore
Sent: 02 September 2003 07:21 PM
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: virus: Minimal belief set
Something that popped up in the Fred Reed discourse:
It's my understanding that some ammount of belief must be taken to allow
the
usage of the scientific method, to observe and draw conclusions about
the
world around us...
Not too long ago it was put to me to explain how I could bear to live in
this world if I truly believed *nothing*. But of course I don't, I have
some
faith in my own senses and my ability to reason.
I propose the following as a minimal belief set:
1: I believe that I exist; I can percieve and affect my surroundings.
2: I believe that my senses are trustworthy within a margin of error.
3: I believe that everything that may be observed has an explanation
which
may be brought about by reason.
Is this a good minimal belief set?
Is it minimal and complete?
Do other people here share similar sets?
Hope to hear some interesting responses :]
--- Calvin Ashmore http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~coa "Don't worry, the worst is yet to come!" --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l> --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
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