Valid and rational conclusion, or not, that IS what happens in the normal
course of human events. Further, the chicken was absolutely right - until
it's death. If I'm crapped on continually in ANY situation by people of some
different (sub) culture, I WILL avoid the situation and those associated
with it. I really don't give a twit about whether my conclusions absolutely
and in all cases right or wrong. Only that the conclusion serves me for all
practical purposes. It's just like theories in science. Newtonian relativity
may not be complete, but we seldom have to deal with velocities close to the
speed of light or gravitational potentials differing sufficiently to make
our clocks so inaccurate that we'll miss a meeting. Therefore (save for some
specialized fields of endeavor) we think in terms of and use the everyday
mathematics of Newtonian relativity only. It successfully gets us through
our lives with a minimum of crap. So does avoiding those, who in our
experience, are just too aggravating to be around.
Regards,
Bob...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose
as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers
with the smallest possible amount of hissing."
- Jean-Baptiste Colbert,
minister of finance to French King Louis XIV
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob W" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 3:41 PM
Subject: RE: The Photographer's Rights
That's not a valid or a rational conclusion. You are using induction,
which
is fraught with problems, and is not 'truth preserving'. In other words,
even if all the premises are true, the conclusion is not necessarily true.
The rational person, in the situation you describe, will look for other
conclusions, knowing that the predictions made on the basis of induction
are
not the only ones that are consistent with the available evidence.
Bertrand Russell gave an example to demonstrate the often weak conclusions
you can reach by induction. A chicken woke up every morning and was fed by
the farmer. The chicken concluded that he would be fed every day. One day
he
woke up, expecting to be fed, and the farmer cut off his head.
--
Cheers,
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 17 August 2005 13:47
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: The Photographer's Rights
Quoting Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> How is it possible to have a rational dislike of an ethnic minority?
>
Lets say for example that every dealing you have, be it
personal or business, with a particular ethnic group, you get
dissed and/or ripped off.
Eventually, you will conclude quite rationally that there is
smething wrong with that group, or their culture, and will
come to dislike them.
William Robb
