3 ms·

If you can't honestly evaluate ideas, how do you know that you are right about any of your views? How do you know that pride is a frailty? What kind of standard

by abtinf 9y ago

If you can't honestly evaluate ideas, how do you know that you are right about any of your views? How do you know that pride is a frailty? What kind of standard could you even apply to decide "harm" or "benefit" of an idea?

kennywinker 9y ago
Indeed, you can't know anything for sure. That's logically true, but a totally pointless dead end. Backing away from that so we can have a useful conversation - I guess when I talk about toxic ideas I'm thinking something like Trump's "fake news" declarations. We can study it and... within' reasonable bounds, know that it's a distortion of reality. Of course not all news is 100% accurate, and all news comes with politics attached - why was this reported not that, etc. but calling the new york times "fake news" is just wrong. If we analyze things in a deep and unbiased way we can be fairly sure they are mostly acting in good faith with the goal of telling the truth. But it's a toxic idea - if we don't have the time, inclination or critical skills to break it down, it can prey on people's mistrust of intellectualism and stereotypes about the media. If you believe it even a little bit it undermines any and all criticism of Trump no matter how valid. Which allows him to dance around the normal check on democracy that the media is supposed to be. To conclude: I don't know that pride is a frailty that can be exploited by a toxic idea to cause harm, but that's the way the world looks from here so that's how I conduct myself.
- abtinf 9y ago
  Since you seem to be interested in ideas, in how we know things, and how ideas can impact the degree to which we flourish in life, I will suggest two books to you that made a lot of sense to me. https://www.amazon.com/Objectivism-Philosophy-Ayn-Rand-Library/dp/0452011019 https://www.amazon.com/Objectivism-Philosophy-Ayn-Rand-Libra... https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-Epistemology-Objectivist-Foundation/dp/1493753142 https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-Epistemology-Objectivist-Fou...

by abtinf 9y ago

kennywinker 9y ago

Indeed, you can't know anything for sure. That's logically true, but a totally pointless dead end. Backing away from that so we can have a useful conversation - I guess when I talk about toxic ideas I'm thinking something like Trump's "fake news" declarations. We can study it and... within' reasonable bounds, know that it's a distortion of reality. Of course not all news is 100% accurate, and all news comes with politics attached - why was this reported not that, etc. but calling the new york times "fake news" is just wrong. If we analyze things in a deep and unbiased way we can be fairly sure they are mostly acting in good faith with the goal of telling the truth. But it's a toxic idea - if we don't have the time, inclination or critical skills to break it down, it can prey on people's mistrust of intellectualism and stereotypes about the media. If you believe it even a little bit it undermines any and all criticism of Trump no matter how valid. Which allows him to dance around the normal check on democracy that the media is supposed to be. To conclude: I don't know that pride is a frailty that can be exploited by a toxic idea to cause harm, but that's the way the world looks from here so that's how I conduct myself.

abtinf 9y ago
Since you seem to be interested in ideas, in how we know things, and how ideas can impact the degree to which we flourish in life, I will suggest two books to you that made a lot of sense to me. https://www.amazon.com/Objectivism-Philosophy-Ayn-Rand-Library/dp/0452011019 https://www.amazon.com/Objectivism-Philosophy-Ayn-Rand-Libra... https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-Epistemology-Objectivist-Foundation/dp/1493753142 https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-Epistemology-Objectivist-Fou...