On Sep 15, 2011, at 10:42 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Stephen A. Lawrence <sa...@pobox.com> wrote:
But my opinion is the only one I've got, so naturally, I believe it.
You have no choice. Belief is not voluntary. A person cannot
persuade himself that 2+2 does not equal 4. That is the problem
with some arguments in favor of religion such as "Pascal's wager."
Pascal cannot choose to believe or not believe.
But when you are aware that other people who appear to be experts
disagree, it should give you pause. Of course experts are sometimes
wrong. Also, you have to watch out for a logical fallacy,
"Fallacious Appeal to Authority, Misuse of Authority:"
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html
Some people think that citing any authority is an invalid argument.
They confuse a fallacious appeal to an actual, valid appeal.
- Jed
An appeal to authority can only affect one's judgement of the
probability of truth. It is non-Aristotelian. It is a sales tool.
It is not a logical argument, and thus can not be either valid or
invalid. It is not possible to take a set of true premises, apply
only an appeal to authority argument, and from that determine a new
premise that is known to be true or false. There are plenty of
examples of a single scientist being considered wrong when no
authority agreed, only to have time pass until most authorities
agreed . The validity or invalidity of logical argument is
forever. The perception of truth can be fleeting.
That's my personal opinion anyway. Maybe a reference to an expert
opinion on that can be found. 8^)))
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
