RE: virus: Re: Social Metaphysics

Richard Brodie (RBrodie@brodietech.com)
Sun, 14 Sep 1997 08:29:14 -0700


On Sunday, September 14, 1997 7:03 AM, D.H.Rosdeitcher
[SMTP:76473.3041@compuserve.com] wrote:
> The Objectivist way of "validating" knowledge makes a clear example of
how
> people tend to look to an authority for certainty. In this case the
> authority is "the senses". In Popper's system, which makes the most sense
> to me right now, is that you don't use anything to justify what you
think,
> including the senses, since the senses do not always give reliable
> information. Instead you disprove a theory by trying to knock it down by
> criticizing or testing. This epistemology, which seems to be the most
> useful, and is very stimulating, is not the same thing as believing that
> what other's say matters more than your own judgement, since you are
> evaluating arguments and results of tests.

Very true. Most people who claim to be "scientific" have actually done very
little science in their lives. What they mean is they trust the authority
of scientific literature. Not a bad thing to do, really, but one should
acknowledge what cult one belongs to.

Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Author, VIRUS OF THE MIND: The New Science of the Meme
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
Visit Meme Central: http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm