[Platt] Isn't there something in critical thinking about the dangers of inference? I don't know. I'm asking.
[Arlo] I'm not sure how we can reason without inference. Peirce called it "hypothetical induction" and later "abduction". We can't _know_ the sun will rise tomorrow. But given its track record, its a safe inference (and, of course, pragmatically we can say "we know the sun will rise tomorrow"). Here, with evolution, we see a singular process (the movement of patterns towards "betterness") occurring throughout nature and history. I think its a safe inference to say this process will continue. Indeed, I think evolution is simply the visible manifestation of Quality. [Platt] Is it possible we will not evolve at all, but like the Neanderthals, become extinct? [Arlo] Its possible, sure, that we will become extinct. Some days I'm sure of it. I once asked a class to write an essay answering "where will humanity be in two thousand years?". The overwhelming majority of essays began, "although I don't think mankind will be around in two thousand years, if we were...". Whether this is the result of media bombardment with horrific events or a dialogue centered on Armageddon mythology, I can't say, but I find it illuminating that so many can't project a future for man past the next few hundred years. [Platt] I don't know who the "we" are you're referring to. Muslims perhaps? In any case you can exclude me. But, like Pirsig, I do believe in a higher power that "creates this world in which we live." (Lila, 9) [Arlo] The "we", those that exclude "man" from the natural world around them in an elevation of man to a preeminent "outside and above" role, is typical of many fundamentalist readings of religion, including most definitely the Occidental religions. (Here again I hear Pirsig, "a part of the world and not an enemy of it"). moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
