[lit-ideas] Re: lit-ideas Digest (editing) and Missouri)
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:33:45 -0330
Quoting John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>:
> On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 9:23 AM, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >
> >>
> > There may be something conceptually odd about it but there's also
> something
> > unsatisfying about a merely schematic account of what might be going on
> > here; schematic insofar as neither a context for or examples of one's
> saying
> > 'I no longer believe what I thought I believed,' are given. (One small
> > point: one may no longer believe P—which one formerly thought one
> > believed—without believing not-P; one may say—and this seems to me a
> fairly
> > common experience—that one thought one believed P, but now one doesn't
> know
> > what to believe, or what one believes.)
>
>
> Could we conclude that, confronted with the question, "Do you believe in
> God?" Walter's philosopher sees only two alternatives: faith or atheism. He
> does not consider either remaining agnostic or "Not in your God" as possible
> answers?
>
> John
RP and John McC coreectly point out that I have placed an unnecessary
restriction on the scope of the requirement of having an alternative to P in my
argument. The agnostic may be happily and safely granted admittance, along with
the athiest, as another alternative. But I think it remains the case that all
my argument requires is but one alternative to the theist's belief (that) P for
the conclusion to follow. (For if there is no alternative to believing P, one is
no longer in a rational space of discourse. And it becomes dubious whether P is
actually a "belief.")
I still can't recall the name of the fellow who said something to the effect
that it is always and everywhere wrong to believe without reasons for one's
belief. (I think this latter version is more accurate than the former one I
gave.) Yes, Socrates does make that claim. But I'm thinking of an analytic
philosopher from the late 50s or early 60s. He is frequently referenced today
in the literature on epistemological virtue and the ethics of belief. Quite a
well known fellow. Could be dead by now.
Walter O
MUN
> --
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
>
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