Subject: Re: [lojban] Set of answers encore

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 15:35:48 EDT

In a message dated 9/27/2001 11:28:33 AM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] 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.)