For example, let's say that I'm teaching you the game of chess, that is, I'm explaining the rules of the game, but you are doubting everything that I tell you. Now according to you it's okay, because doubting is a relative concept, that is, one can use it any way one sees fit, but how can this be the case? Aren't there rules of correct usage, or do you apply your own rules? — Sam26
That's not right at all. To put in some semi-arbitrary percentages, it's certain if the probability is 100%, likely if the probability is >=75%, unlikely if the probability is <= 25%, and impossible if the probability is 0%. — Michael
We often use the term "doubt" to refer to something with a low probability, not just to anything that isn't certain. If the likelihood that I will win the game is 95%, then I'm not certain that I will win, but neither am I doubtful. I'm pretty sure that I will win. — Michael
"Pretty sure" isn't "certain", but neither is it "doubtful". You're setting up a false dichotomy. — Michael
As I said, the dichotomy is between certitude and doubt — Metaphysician Undercover
There is nothing that is immune to doubt. We can doubt anything we want. And when we don't, it's merely because we decided not to do so. — Magnus Anderson
but it doesn't necessarily have to take the form "I believe that..." one's actions can express one's beliefs. — Sam26
And this is the dichotomy that I'm criticising. When I say that I doubt something, I'm not just saying that I don't have certitude; I'm saying that I think it unlikely. — Michael
Remember, you said we can doubt anything we want, so I gave you an example of someone teaching the rules of chess, and the person to whom they are teaching the game is doubting the rules, doubting everything the teacher says. Does it make sense to doubt in this situation? — Sam26
One doesn't doubt simply because one wants to doubt, one doubts because there are good reasons to doubt. — Sam26
I understand that. What I don't understand is this: why do you think that in the example that you gave it makes no sense to doubt? — Magnus Anderson
Well, if you're sitting with an expert chess player, and they're teaching you the game of chess, and you start doubting everything he's says, without good reason, what sense could we make of your doubts? It would seem that you don't have a good grasp on reality, or you just haven't learn to use the English words correctly, or you have a mental illness. — Sam26
My statements are:
1) Nothing is immune to doubt
2) The logic of doubt, i.e. when we decide to doubt and when we decide not to doubt, is relative
— Magnus Anderson
Or we can say, a point where one's doubt is baseless.Eventually there is a point where your doubt is pointless. — Banno
Let's say you know you're getting instruction from an expert chess player, that's a given. He then tells you that bishops move diagonally, you then tell him, you doubt that. If there are no reasons to doubt, it doesn't make sense. — Sam26
Constitutive rules just are what a culture, a way of life, takes to be inherently given in perception, in life. Obviously this is mediated, but not totally determined by, individual cultures. Hands are the example in question. Since the hand is indispensable, in fact absolutely foundational, to all forms of human life and culture, whether prime-itive, ancient, medieval, modern, post-modern, creative or scientific; the fact that we have hands could not be more constitutive. — Janus
If he insists that it is worth doubting that two and two is four, that tells us again about Magnus, not about arithmetic. — Banno
Lemons might not be bitter. There is a possibility. It might be the case that our perception is altered by hidden forces (e.g. aliens.) Each time we taste a lemon aliens make sure we don't perceive its real taste. — Magnus Anderson
What if he tells me that bishops move horizontally and vertically. Does it make sense to doubt him? — Michael
Actually no, if you believe he is an expert, and all the information you have about him points to him as an expert, you would still have no reason to doubt him. — Sam26
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