Is the statement "Claims demand evidence" always true?
December 10, 2016 at 12:16 am
(This post was last modified: December 10, 2016 at 12:20 am by Mudhammam.)
I frequently come across the claim that "claims demand evidence." Is this always true? Does the claim that "claims demand evidence" itself demand evidence? And does the claim of the claim that "claims demand evidence" demand evidence that the claim itself demands evidence? And....
No, I'm just kidding. But in all earnestness, what evidence do I have that true claims are always accompanied by evidence? Isn't that a claim that asserts itself to be true by definition? And if not, then in what sense are claims about our various conceptual relations evident, in a world where seemingly no two people agree on the minutest details? Are not our reasons, and the very persons whom we believe to be in possession of them, namely, ourselves, in some true sense no more than unique structures of sight and sound produced by (or conducive of?) an inward understanding that forms sets of propositions which we (it?) accept to be true by definition? Hence, minds are creators of meaning, inventors or (discoverers?) of truth, such as the statement that "claims demand evidence." If this is ultimately question-begging, then what is the non-question-begging point from which to start?
No, I'm just kidding. But in all earnestness, what evidence do I have that true claims are always accompanied by evidence? Isn't that a claim that asserts itself to be true by definition? And if not, then in what sense are claims about our various conceptual relations evident, in a world where seemingly no two people agree on the minutest details? Are not our reasons, and the very persons whom we believe to be in possession of them, namely, ourselves, in some true sense no more than unique structures of sight and sound produced by (or conducive of?) an inward understanding that forms sets of propositions which we (it?) accept to be true by definition? Hence, minds are creators of meaning, inventors or (discoverers?) of truth, such as the statement that "claims demand evidence." If this is ultimately question-begging, then what is the non-question-begging point from which to start?
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza