Of course willful ignorance is bad. But I don't think it's primarily a matter of intellectual laziness or not respecting truth. It seems to me there are a couple of problems.
1. Economic. We all know that "'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.'" There are many people in the energy business whose livelihood (and in many case wealth) depends on climate change not being true. Most of them are not intellectually lazy in the sense of not respecting truth. Most of them don't want the consequences of acknowledging the truth--and are willing to spend a great deal of money to plant as much doubt as possible. 2. Tribal. Many people will disagree with people from the "other" tribe just because they are from the other tribe. Again, it's not a matter of disrespecting truth. It's a matter of loyalty to one's worldview deepest beliefs. I applaud McIntyre's appeal for reason, but I doubt it will have much of an effect on anything or anyone. -- Russ On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 7:39 PM Nick Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > Frank, > > > > That is a splendid article, > > http://m.chronicle.com/article/The-Attack-on-Truth/230631/ > > and I think you undersell it. Even the worse philosophophobes on the list > will be happy to read it, and take strength from it. > > > > NOT SO MY RESPONSE TO IT, which I copy in below. Philosophophobes beware! > > > > Nick > > > > > > Begin philosophophobe free zone: > ------------------------------ > > > > The confusion about truth has its roots in the deep history of > Pragmatism. Peirce famously said that the truth is that upon which we are > fated to agree and the real is that which is the case, no matter what you, > or I or any other person might believe. Some pragmatists (James, perhaps?) > took this to mean that the truth is whatever we happen to agree upon. > Peirce hated that interpretation because he was well aware that it may take > millennia for the fated convergence of opinion to take place. He deplored > literary criticism. Dewey was rather on Peirce's side of this argument, > and after WWII, and around the time of Dewey's death, this country basked > in the glow of a Deweyan consensus until the Left Critics started to hack > away at it, and the right wing took up the cry. The author does not > mention the role of the field of anthropology in all of this, which, I > gather, almost destroyed itself as a field over this very issue, and almost > took down social science with it. > > We probably won't get through this mess until we find a solution to the > problem that the Pragmatists struggled over -- that the only measure of the > truth or falsity, the reality or unreality, of our experiences is other > experiences. How, now, do we pick out from our experiences those upon > which the community of inquiry is fated to agree, in the very long run? > ------------------------------ > > End of philosophophobe free zone > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Frank > Wimberly > *Sent:* Monday, June 08, 2015 9:20 PM > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > *Subject:* [FRIAM] The Attack on Truth - The Chronicle of Higher Education > > > > Philosophy haters do not read the linked article. It mentions Andy > Norman. He is a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon, in the > department where I used to work. My daughter was a friend of his when they > were in high school in the 1980s. I am old. > > Frank > > http://m.chronicle.com/article/The-Attack-on-Truth/230631/ > > Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE Phone > (505) 670-9918 > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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