(no subject)
I'm reading Popper's Conjectures and Refutations at the moment, looking for the quote about science and magic that I read ages ago and have since lost. In the section where he's discussing epistemology and the sources of knowledge I found this:
So my answer to the questions "How do you know? What is the source or basis of your assertion? What observations have led you to it?" would be: "I do not know: my assertion was merely a guess. Nevermind the source, or the sources, from which it may spring - there are many possible sources, and I may not be aware of half of them; and origins and pedigrees have in any case little bearing on the truth. But if you are interested in the problem which I tried to solve by my tentative assertion, you may help me by criticizing it as severely as you can; and if you design some experimental test which you think might refute my assertion, I shall gladly and to the best of my powers, help you to refute it.
It reminds me of another quote of his that roughly says "The basis of Democracy is being able to say I may be wrong, and you may be right, but by some reasonable means we can get through this disagreement together."
The spirit of those things quotes are something I try to live by, but too often I let myself get emotionally committed to an argument, and try to win. If winning was what these things were about then there's something odd about how, at least for me, playing to win seems to be the surest way to lose.
So my answer to the questions "How do you know? What is the source or basis of your assertion? What observations have led you to it?" would be: "I do not know: my assertion was merely a guess. Nevermind the source, or the sources, from which it may spring - there are many possible sources, and I may not be aware of half of them; and origins and pedigrees have in any case little bearing on the truth. But if you are interested in the problem which I tried to solve by my tentative assertion, you may help me by criticizing it as severely as you can; and if you design some experimental test which you think might refute my assertion, I shall gladly and to the best of my powers, help you to refute it.
It reminds me of another quote of his that roughly says "The basis of Democracy is being able to say I may be wrong, and you may be right, but by some reasonable means we can get through this disagreement together."
The spirit of those things quotes are something I try to live by, but too often I let myself get emotionally committed to an argument, and try to win. If winning was what these things were about then there's something odd about how, at least for me, playing to win seems to be the surest way to lose.