[FRIAM] Doxastic logic - Wikipedia

[Nick Thompson]

Glen, 

I apologize.  My rhetorical manners are not in good order.  I am being cranky.  

I am afraid this discussion is about to dissolve into a quibble about the meaning of the words "doubt" and "belief", but let's take it one more round.    In my use of the words ... and I think Peirce's ... one can entertain a doubt without "really" having one.  Knowledge of perception tells us that every perceived "fact" is an inference subject to doubt and yet, if one acts in the assurance that some fact is the case, one cannot be said to really doubt it, can one?   It follows, then, that to the extent that we act on our perceptions, we act without doubt on expectations that are doubtable.  

Eric Charles may be able to help me with this:  there is some debate between William  James and Peirce about whether the man, being chased by the bear who pauses at the edge of the chasm, and then leaps across it, doubted at the moment of leaping that he could make the jump.  I think James says Yes and Peirce says No.  If that is the argument we are having, then I am satisfied we have wrung everything we can out of it.  

Anyway.  I regret being cranky, but I can't seem to stop.  Is that another example of what we are talking about here?  

Nick 

Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/


-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of g??? ?
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2017 3:58 PM
To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Doxastic logic - Wikipedia

It's strange.  You speak about the way _you_ think and behave as if that's the way _I_ think and behave.  Can we all say "vainglorously" together? 8^)

I can tell you unflinchingly and honestly that I DO doubt that the floor is still under my feet when I put my legs out of the bed in the morning.  If you don't doubt it, then you are governed by faith and convinced by things you believe.   Even IF you know precisely what Peirce WOULD say (which we can doubt), it still doesn't mean Peirce was right.  Yeah, it's likely he was way smarter than me.  But that doesn't mean he knows what I do and don't doubt.

I doubt nearly everything about myself on a continual basis.  I doubt my strength.  I doubt my intelligence.  I doubt every purchase I've ever made.  I doubt that Renee' will stay with me.  I doubt everything on a continual basis.  So, you (or Peirce) are clearly flat-out wrong.  It seems very arrogant to stumble along thinking your expectations are somehow important enough to remain true.


On 09/21/2017 12:48 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> Peirce would say, for the most part, we cannot live in doubt.  We cannot doubt that the floor is still under our feet when we put our legs out of the bed in the morning or that the visual field is whole, even though our eyes tell us that there are two gian holes in it.  Every perception is doubtable in the sense that Feynman so vaingloriously lays out here, yet for the most part we live in a world of inferred expectations which are largely confirmed.  Like the other Feynman quote, it is wise only when we stipulate what is absurd about it and make something wise and noble of what is left.

--
☣ gⅼеɳ

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