Re: virus: Rationality

Alex Williams (thantos@decatl.alf.dec.com)
Wed, 5 Mar 1997 10:26:41 -0500 (EST)


> > if everyone realized that all `facts' are
> > just `currently held truths' the world might suddenly undergo a
> > similar awakening to Eva's not using `I' for 10min ...
>
> Did I miss something here?

You have to read and correlate all the interesting threads on the CoV
to understand my fragmented mind, young Skywalker ...

> This is true, and it would also be true to say that science creates
> "currently held truths", which may be the only useful definition of
> "fact".

Well, its one source ... other sources may be bollocks to scientific
minds, yet they will still spawn `facts.' The current fooferall about
cloning in the US, for example ... in the common mind one fact seems
to be `cloning is a dangerous business.' The reality of the matter is
more sedate, but political `facts' and common `facts' need have no
discourse with reality. Of course, neither does scientific `fact.'

> I thought the bit about the word "fact" being undefinable in a useful
> sense was quite original. I think I'm going to sit in a corner and
> cry for a bit....

Take solace in the fact (ha!) that I believe there /is/ an external
reality out there ... even if we can't talk about it coherently. :)