Jef Allbright wrote:
>
> Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>>
>> Jef Allbright writes:
>>
>>> Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>>>
>>>> But our main criterion for what to believe should be
>>>> what is true, right?
>>>
>>> I'm very interested in whether the apparent tautology
>>> is my misunderstanding, his transparent belief, a simple
>>> lack of precision, or something more.
>>
>> Thanks for the compliments about my writing. I meant that what we
>> should believe does not necessarily have to be the same as what is
>> true, but I think that unless there are special circumstances, it
>> ought to be the case.
>
> I agree within the context you intended. My point was that we can never
> be certain of truth, so we should be careful in our speech and thinking
> not to imply that such truth is even available to us for the kind of
> comparisons being discussed here. We can know that some patterns of
> action work better than others, but the only "truth" we can assess is
> always within a specific context.
>
>
>> Brent Meeker made a similar point: if someone is dying of a terminal
>> illness, maybe it is better that he believe he has longer to live than
>> the medical evidence suggests, but that would have to be an example of
>> special circumstances.
>
> There are plenty of examples of self-deception providing benefits within
> the scope of the individual, and leading to increasingly effective
> models of "reality for the group. Here's a recent article on this
> topic:
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/science/26lying.html?pagewanted=print
I read recently that almost everyone overestimates their abilities. The people who most accurately assess themselves are the clinically depressed.
Brent Meeker
"I consider myself an average man, except for the fact that I consider myself an average man."
--- Michel de Montaigne
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group.
To post to this group, send email to everything-list.domain.name.hidden
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list-unsubscribe.domain.name.hidden
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
Received on Wed Dec 27 2006 - 14:33:28 PST