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Article 1234 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: john@publications.ccc.monash.edu.au (John Wilkins)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Is there any such thing as informal logic?
Message-ID: <1991Nov8.021520.22988@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Date: 8 Nov 91 02:15:20 GMT
References: <JMC.91Nov2175822@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> <1991Nov3.031516.5007@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Nov5.190928.6830@milton.u.washington.edu> <1991Nov5.233331.5142@husc3.harvard.edu>
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In article <1991Nov5.233331.5142@husc3.harvard.edu>, zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
> 
> In article <1991Nov5.190928.6830@milton.u.washington.edu> 
> petry@milton.u.washington.edu (David Petry) writes:
> 
> >Some of us (less intelligent people) believe that "truth" consists of those
> >beliefs which tend to increase the survival potential of humanity.  Thus 
> >those beliefs which have absolutely no utility also have absolutely no truth.
> 
> Conversely, anything useful must ipso facto be true; if it is useful to the
> Republican leadership to claim that trickle-down economics works, then it
> must work.
> 

This is a straw man. In fact, Petry is partly right: if a belief tends to 
increase the survival of the population of which the believer is a member,
then it is likely that that belief will be counted as true by that
population. Thus, trickle-down economics is true[Republican-leadership]
iff belief in trickle down economics (tde) tends to promote the survival of
the Republican leadership. Survival here means continued existence qua
whatever the index on true is. Thus, tde may be false[USA-poor]. And
before anyone gets all het up about relativism, remember there is always
the most inclusive set -- true[humanity] -- to judge against. So I vote
for Petry's view. Sorry again Misha.


