Thursday, January 29, 2009

Chapter 4 & 5 whitney michaels

Is it a copt out for Lynch to say that truth is only good, all things being equal and is there a way to argue that this makes the pursiut of true completely subjective. The idea of justified true belief seems more important to Lynch than getting to the actual truth. I don't feel like he proves to the reader in these chapters that truth is good in and of itself, it seems in some way that by stating the philosophy of other "antitruthists" with a greater amount of evidence then he provides his own arguments, that he is convincing me at least to question his reasonings. Where in these chapters does Lynch provide evidence that turth is good in and of its self. Additionally, I tend to agree with the pragmatic standard as well. Why should I pursue something that doesn't benefit me?
I agree that inquiry is important to discover and formulate or beliefs and that it is dictated by our own values and experiences. However, how does this get us closer to the objective truth. I feel like our inquiries are more likely to simply create, as Lynch disscussed, a system of beliefs which when put together are true in context, but possible not true in reality. As long as we are not harming anyone in believing these falsitudes is it still ok to believe? What I am really asking is what is the difference between false beliefs which truely apply to our belief system and are justified and believing the truth? Which is more important?
I feel like Lynch is not asking us to pursue the truth in these chapters, but rather justified belief which is relative to our own system of beliefs and I find this to be inconsistent with the rest of the book.

1 comment:

  1. Whitney, have your thoughts on this changed after class yesterday?

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