Cultural narratives, national identity stories are very difficult to question, let alone relinquish. Thus, we tend to pick the good bits from the past...
Global overpopulation is caused by factors readily traceable through history. The proselytizing religions had a fair amount to do with it, as did the ...
*Myths and facts have only the most tenuous relationship.* If you mean determine what's true and false in history, the answer is: Not always. Document...
It has been led by the nose-rings. But not just recently. The Civil War era was no more ruled by reason than the moderns one is. It's not about the 'e...
Indeed. That happens periodically, too. What comes out the other end is anyone's guess. https://www.britannica.com/event/Iranian-Revolution https://ww...
They already publish volumes and volumes. But the only people interested in reading any of it are ones with no power or influence. A valid one. "Those...
F'rinstance The problem isn't who will research well and report their findings as accurately and truthfully as possible - they're already doing that. ...
How about non-existent? I don't think philosophy is a quest for truth at all; it's more a search - quest is too romantic a word - for some modus viven...
That's the key. We so much want some things to be true, and some things to be untrue, that we're prepared to accept whatever we want to hear, whether ...
On the contrary, I have cited any number of examples of the same phenomenon in other countries, on other continents. Trump is the American manifestati...
Sometimes. History is not a well-written novel; its arc more likely to be shaped like A Chinese New Year dragon. You can see it in your own country, a...
It would have to be international - historians who have no national loyalties, or else have thrashed out their biases among their peers. It is possibl...
If the sane people have no interest - more to the point, if they feel bereft of agency - they leave the field wide open to fanatics, lunatics and crim...
The surrounding text ain't too shabby, literary-wise. I do not, however, see its relevance to my respecting only those worthy of respect - can't make ...
Indeed. And those efforts will be opposed just as vigorously by the same powerful factions that block access of citizens to sound information and the ...
The fact that I don't think "the whole critical thinking, rational thing" is something that can be "accomplished"? Well, OK, but I certainly think muc...
Exactly: If any of the provisions are missing, then the facts are more correctly stated as: "I call my dog Mark." If he doesn't answer to Mark, then i...
It's a spiral, isn't it? Government disappoints people, people disengage from government; a now less responsible government lets people down, people a...
Really? In that case, I name you Ruby Tuesday, and from this day forward, that is your name, by the conventions of naming and ownership -- oh, by the ...
Yet. But there is hope https://theconversation.com/did-australia-just-make-a-move-to-the-left-183611 More, anyway than for the UK... and Canada's got ...
I never said it can be done at all. I wish you all the success in the world! He supports them. Anyone who supports him indirectly supports them. They ...
Okay. You tell us how to go about that, and I'm on board. I just don't know how to respect people who drive an SUV into a crowd, post death- and rape-...
I agree that the definition of words is established by convention. I don't agree that facts are controlled by public opinion. It is true within provis...
The biggest problem with that solution is that the entrenched positions shored up by dogma and propaganda prevent any possibility of finding any such ...
They're not the sources of conflict; those go back deep into history. They do perpetuate entrenched political positions; hamper if not outright preven...
Exactly so!! It could be cultivated, in school and in the media. Unfortunately, critical thought has become the prime target for right-wing government...
For "king", I read "$$", but for the rest, I agree. Except that I don't believe there is time for an eventuality that relies on future education - whi...
I partially agree. I don't consider the definition of a word "a claim" that is verifiably true or false: it is, indeed, established by conventional us...
Correct Of course. As a claim, it can be disputed, tested, verified and proven.... .... within the confines of its context. Obviously, you can move a ...
It's indisputable, because there is nothing in it to dispute: it's not a claim; it's a definition. A triangle is a triangle. No truth value attached; ...
Some of those topics will be harder to investigate than others. Not least of your problem will stem from the assumption that language is intelligible,...
All of the truth about everything, or just some particular truths about some particular things? The latter is doable: just pick a subject, make yourse...
Are almost the same statement. The first iteration may be taken to refer to "a" shape; a single instance. The second is generalized to all examples of...
And so you should! Experience of - i.e. having previously tested - something may well have convinced you that it is what it seems to be; that a statem...
Looks suspiciously like dogma, that does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fLQ9aAqMss There are different ways of testing truth. https://www.youtube.c...
What doubt? Where? No, we don't. I agreed with Andrew that many people feel that some things are certain, but not necessarily the same ones. I also ag...
Why? I didn't ask anyonewhy. I asked the persons who made the original assertion how they arrived at that conclusion. Why should it? He made an assert...
Neither happy nor sad, just failing to see how it applies to the methods of verification that computer scientists, rocket engineers or surgeons would ...
Yes, if they asserted that some truths are indisputable. And each one would have a plausible answer as to how he would go about testing the veracity o...
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