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As a general rule, any fact you derive from a person's credibility is not a fact. Humans are unreliable and relying on their authority/credibility/good looks to
by stefantalpalaru 12y ago
As a general rule, any fact you derive from a person's credibility is not a fact. Humans are unreliable and relying on their authority/credibility/good looks to establish the truth value of a proposition is a logical error.
We accept this error when we have to do some fast thinking and the consequences of being wrong are small, but the moment you make this flawed logic the general rule is the moment you lose any chance at establishing the facts.
- Dylan16807 12y ago'fact' generally excludes unreasonable uncertainty. Otherwise you've wandered into an area of philosophy where nothing is a fact. And that is not the general meaning of the word. And credibility is a measure of how close their assertions are to the truth, how is that a logical error?
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Otherwise you've wandered into an area of philosophy where nothing is a fact. Or, rather, the area of philosophy where only the class of facts which can be certainly described as such are the facts of having particular present sensations (whether the kind that present as sense-data or the kind that present as memories) is a fact, and all other ideas about the world are either axioms or conclusions supported on the basis of either axioms, sensations, or a combination of the two. Of course, when you leave that area of philosophy, you are in the area of fuzzy and imprecise thinking, so its not a bad area of philosophy to be in.