Re: virus: Re: virus-digest V2 #303

David McFadzean (david@lucifer.com)
Sun, 16 Nov 1997 14:54:54 -0700


At 12:36 AM 11/16/97 +0100, Reed Konsler wrote:
>David:
>>True, most people don't have conscious beliefs on such philosophical
>>matters, but they do have implicit beliefs (or implied beliefs like
>>Reed's implied author). And most people will immediately form a
>>conscious belief if you ask them a question on the subject.
>
>I think it would be more accurate to say that people exibit behavior
>which implies beliefs. Richard is arguing that you are using too

That's what I meant by "implied beliefs". If you don't like the
shorthand I'm willing to go with your wording.

>sophisticated a theory to understand the majority of people...that,
>in other words, you are not making a "close reading of the text"
>but, instead, projecting your own thinking onto the subject and
>claiming that it is obvious what the implications are.

Is that still true, given that I actually meant "people exibit behavior
which implies beliefs"?

>The point of an "implied reality" theory is that it is internally
>constructed and ought to be set aside when it doesn't seem to
>be conforming to observations. I don't know about you, but
>I kind of agree with Richard...speaking about the "philosophy"
>of most people is violating Occam's razor...well, I have to
>admit that the populist in me hates to say that.

Maybe it wasn't from my message that "no opinion" is a valid
implied belief.

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/