[cut the great story]
>In this light, consider four definitions:
>1. Knowledge.... Belief in accordance with the Evidence.
>2. Credulity....... Belief despite the Evidence.
>3. Skepticism... Disbelief despite the Evidence
>4. Thrift............ Disbelief in accordance with the (lack of) =
>Evidence
Wow, I'm sold. This was a great. I also like your characterization
of the intellectual skeptic, which was something I was going to bring
up. Way to define words!
>1. This post seemed to take _forever_ to write, it's longer than I =
>wanted it to be, it says less than I wanted to say, and it says it less =
>well than I'd hoped it would. Lurking is much easier :-)
Oh, but you're so good at it! Don't be a skeptic about your own
knowledge.
>2. Some of the confusion over the word "faith" results from =
>equivocation of "Faith =3D Credulity" with "Faith =3D Committing Fully =
>to Uncertain Propositions". (These correspond exactly to David's =
>graphical interpretation I think.)=20
Another point I was going to make, as well.
>3. Knowledge is the fruit of the middle way, between the intellectual =
>laziness of Credulity - belief without evidence, and the spiritual =
>laziness of Skepticism -- evidence without belief.=20
>
>4. The "power of positive thinking" aspect of the Credulous position is =
>a fascinating aspect of it. It probably gets attention far out of =
>proportion to its actual applicability, but it does so because it is =
>paradoxical and self-referential and interesting and often true (all =
>good things!). In this sense it's probably analogous to the "altruism" =
>issue of natural selection.
Wow.
Deron Rocks!
Reed
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Reed Konsler konsler@ascat.harvard.edu
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