From pycyn@aol.com Thu Sep 27 12:35:54 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: Pycyn@aol.com X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_4_1); 27 Sep 2001 19:35:54 -0000 Received: (qmail 75855 invoked from network); 27 Sep 2001 19:35:53 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by 10.1.4.52 with QMQP; 27 Sep 2001 19:35:53 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO imo-r09.mx.aol.com) (152.163.225.105) by mta1 with SMTP; 27 Sep 2001 19:35:53 -0000 Received: from Pycyn@aol.com by imo-r09.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v31_r1.7.) id r.10.1323771b (657) for ; Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:35:48 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <10.1323771b.28e4d994@aol.com> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:35:48 EDT Subject: Re: [lojban] Set of answers encore To: lojban@yahoogroups.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="part1_10.1323771b.28e4d994_boundary" X-Mailer: AOL 6.0 for Windows US sub 10535 From: pycyn@aol.com X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 11122 --part1_10.1323771b.28e4d994_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 9/27/2001 11:28:33 AM Central Daylight Time, jcowan@reutershealth.com writes: > In _Quiddities_, > Quine says that people believe what they are willing to bet money on, > so as to be able to reasonably distinguish belief from mere lip service > -- although even he concedes that "I know that my Redeemer liveth" is > not a good candidate for this kind of belief-test. It would seem that > he agrees with me that "belief" is a prototype-based category, although > he counts that bad, whereas I reckon it good. > One of the few things about Quine that he seems to get consistently right is his treatment of belief: he does not fall into perfectionism at any point in his career and develops the basic Pragmatist position ever more clearly over time -- aided by Duhem. The interesting question here is whether these beliefs are Dennett's beliefs or opinions; betting money is not quite the same as relying on in ordinary life. Oh, yes, and Quine could be funny, not a common logician trait (thouugh the ones who are are usually very funny indeed: Carroll, Smullyan -- Quine was not quite in their leagues but any steps are to be encouraged.) --part1_10.1323771b.28e4d994_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 9/27/2001 11:28:33 AM Central Daylight Time, jcowan@reutershealth.com writes:


In _Quiddities_,
Quine says that people believe what they are willing to bet money on,
so as to be able to reasonably distinguish belief from mere lip service
-- although even he concedes that "I know that my Redeemer liveth" is
not a good candidate for this kind of belief-test.  It would seem that
he agrees with me that "belief" is a prototype-based category, although
he counts that bad, whereas I reckon it good.


One of the few things about Quine that he seems to get consistently right is his treatment of belief: he does not fall into perfectionism at any point in his career and develops the basic Pragmatist position ever more clearly over time -- aided by Duhem.  The interesting question here is whether these beliefs are Dennett's beliefs or opinions; betting money is not quite the same as relying on in ordinary life.  Oh, yes, and Quine could be funny, not a common logician trait (thouugh the ones who are are usually very funny indeed: Carroll, Smullyan  -- Quine was not quite in their leagues but any steps are to be encouraged.) --part1_10.1323771b.28e4d994_boundary--