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There’s also “beliefs” that aren’t true in a strict sense, but make the world easier to talk or think about and that make it easier to persuade people of a posi
by Veen 6y ago
There’s also “beliefs” that aren’t true in a strict sense, but make the world easier to talk or think about and that make it easier to persuade people of a position. “Human rights” fall into that category. They aren’t true in any straightforward sense, but like you say they encode a system that people would like to live in and provide an easy to conceptualise cognitive and rhetorical shortcut for persuading other people to cooperate in bringing that world about.
- afarrell 6y agoSome beliefs are facts. Some beliefs are a lens to focus on certain facts.
- bluetomcat 6y agoThere are facts, and then there are endless possible interpretations. A fact is an occurrence of something in space and time and can be verified through our 5 senses in an empirical manner, which is also the basis of modern science. For example, it is a fact that I'm currently sitting on my chair, writing this comment. However, answering the question "why am I writing this comment?" is deeply subjective even for me to answer. And yet, many people would consider it a "fact" that I want to sound smart, for example. The language that we use also affects our understanding and models our environment. The previous example can be a fact for all of us only because we have a shared view of "what a chair is" through culture and language.
- mr_toad 6y agoWe hold these truths to be self evident...