Curt Doolittle

Category: Epistemology and Method

  • “The reason we need a truth is because it’s undesirable.” — Curt Doolittle (qu

    —“The reason we need a truth is because it’s undesirable.” — Curt Doolittle

    (quote from yesterday’s show – suggested via Brandon Hayes)

    Source date (UTC): 2018-05-26 16:59:39 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1000421214098247680

  • “The reason we need a truth is because it’s undesirable.” — Curt Doolittle (qu

    —“The reason we need a truth is because it’s undesirable.” — Curt Doolittle

    (quote from yesterday’s show – suggested via Brandon Hayes)

    Source date (UTC): 2018-05-26 12:59:00 UTC

  • TRUE ENOUGH FOR ACTION —“At what point do you know you have enough data and ex

    TRUE ENOUGH FOR ACTION

    —“At what point do you know you have enough data and experience to act?”— Jeff Urizen

    When you (a) must act, (b) can pay for the full consequences of failure of your actions (c) can warranty your actions.

    In other words… when your knowledge is ‘true enough for the consequences’:

    TRUE ENOUGH

    A hierarchy of Truths:

    – True enough to imagine a conceptual relationship

    – True enough for me to feel good about myself.

    – True enough for me to take actions that produce positive results.

    – True enough for me to not cause others to react negatively to me.

    – True enough to resolve a conflict without subjective opinion among my fellow people with similar values.

    – True enough to resolve a conflict without subjective opinion across different peoples with different values.

    – True regardless of all opinions or perspectives.

    – Tautologically true: in that the two things are equal

    TRUE ENOUGH FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF ERROR

    Source date (UTC): 2018-05-26 12:51:00 UTC

  • Reverence

    I don’t revere anything because that would mean I lacked the reason to judge it without reliance on emotion for decidability. There is no difficulty (for me) between talking to a god (which I do daily) and understanding the composition of that god, for the simple reason that talking to a god works. Lots of us talking to gods works better. Just as fitness is a substitute for physical labor, talking to gods is a substitute for talking to our “headmen”, or “Grandparents”. I understand that very few of us lack that degree of agency. Which is why I’m trying to find a way to produce the same results without the semitic nonsense. Very few people can be entirely dependent upon reason. It’s possible that we can train the majority of the population to have a more rational kind of faith than the evil statist or evil supernatural kinds. The problem is finding a narrative that makes it tolerable without making a lot of people ‘disappear’ first.
    May 24, 2018 6:59am

  • Reverence

    I don’t revere anything because that would mean I lacked the reason to judge it without reliance on emotion for decidability. There is no difficulty (for me) between talking to a god (which I do daily) and understanding the composition of that god, for the simple reason that talking to a god works. Lots of us talking to gods works better. Just as fitness is a substitute for physical labor, talking to gods is a substitute for talking to our “headmen”, or “Grandparents”. I understand that very few of us lack that degree of agency. Which is why I’m trying to find a way to produce the same results without the semitic nonsense. Very few people can be entirely dependent upon reason. It’s possible that we can train the majority of the population to have a more rational kind of faith than the evil statist or evil supernatural kinds. The problem is finding a narrative that makes it tolerable without making a lot of people ‘disappear’ first.
    May 24, 2018 6:59am

  • Truth and Art Are Not Matters of Opinion but Of Knowledge

    —“Truth, like art, lies in the eye of the beholder.”–Ben Frayle Nope. Truth is decidable. And so is Art. They are not matters of opinion but matters of knowledge and ignorance. Bad taste and bad judgement are both matters of ignorance and ability.

  • Truth and Art Are Not Matters of Opinion but Of Knowledge

    —“Truth, like art, lies in the eye of the beholder.”–Ben Frayle Nope. Truth is decidable. And so is Art. They are not matters of opinion but matters of knowledge and ignorance. Bad taste and bad judgement are both matters of ignorance and ability.

  • –“What Does True Mean?”–

    Ok, so traditionally we say “a statement that is consistent, correspondent, and coherent.” But that’s not really clear enough. So, I’ll expand it fully: 1 – categorically consistent 2 – internally consistent (logical) 3 – externally correspondent (empirical) 4 – existentially possible (operationally stated) 5 – rational and reciprocal (voluntary, ethical and moral) 6 – with stated limits and full accounting. (complete) 7 – and coherent across all of the above. (coherent) The reason being that (a) those are the categories actionable by man) and (b) no category is closed without appeal to the next. and so (c) any statement must pass all those tests. Now, a fact consists of a theory of a measurement. And a statement consist of a promise of constant relations. And a theory consists of a contingent description of causal relations. You only know falsehoods. We never know truths without perfect knowledge. We never have perfect knowledge. So all we can do is warranty our truthfulness (due diligence) against falsehood. This is the difference between justificationism (i think this because of these excuses) and falsificationism (i think this because I have no other choice that survives falsification).
    May 24, 2018 11:57am

  • –“What Does True Mean?”–

    Ok, so traditionally we say “a statement that is consistent, correspondent, and coherent.” But that’s not really clear enough. So, I’ll expand it fully: 1 – categorically consistent 2 – internally consistent (logical) 3 – externally correspondent (empirical) 4 – existentially possible (operationally stated) 5 – rational and reciprocal (voluntary, ethical and moral) 6 – with stated limits and full accounting. (complete) 7 – and coherent across all of the above. (coherent) The reason being that (a) those are the categories actionable by man) and (b) no category is closed without appeal to the next. and so (c) any statement must pass all those tests. Now, a fact consists of a theory of a measurement. And a statement consist of a promise of constant relations. And a theory consists of a contingent description of causal relations. You only know falsehoods. We never know truths without perfect knowledge. We never have perfect knowledge. So all we can do is warranty our truthfulness (due diligence) against falsehood. This is the difference between justificationism (i think this because of these excuses) and falsificationism (i think this because I have no other choice that survives falsification).
    May 24, 2018 11:57am

  • WORTH REPEATING

    https://propertarianism.com/2015/05/29/definitions-truth/TRUTH: WORTH REPEATING

    https://propertarianism.com/2015/05/29/definitions-truth/

    Source date (UTC): 2018-05-24 13:43:00 UTC