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Article 1238 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Is there any such thing as informal logic?
Message-ID: <1991Nov8.092405.5232@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 91 14:24:04 GMT
References: <1991Nov5.190928.6830@milton.u.washington.edu> 
 <1991Nov5.233331.5142@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Nov8.021520.22988@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au>
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
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In article <1991Nov8.021520.22988@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> 
john@publications.ccc.monash.edu.au (John Wilkins) writes:

>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:

DP:
>> >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.

MZ:
>> 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.

DP:
>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.

This is *not* a straw man: nowhere in his argument does DP say who is to
decide which beliefs tend to increase the survival potential of humanity.
You, on the other hand, seem to qualify his criterion by extending the
demand that belief be counted as true to ``the most inclusive set''.
Setting aside the problem that most beliefs would thereby be judged as
lacking a truth value, at least if total agreement of all parties is to be
stipulated, the conditions you are describing could never transcend
political consensus, which, as I hope everyone here realizes, can often be
wrong.  End of this discourse.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
| ``If there are no Platonic ideals, then what did we fight for?''   |
|                                (A Spanish anarchist, after 1938)   |
| Mikhail Zeleny                                           Harvard   |
| 872 Massachusetts Ave., Apt. 707                         doesn't   |
| Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139                            think    |
| (617) 661-8151                                              so     |
| email zeleny@math.harvard.edu or zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu        |
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