RE: Agnostics
August 4, 2016 at 10:49 pm
(This post was last modified: August 4, 2016 at 11:23 pm by bennyboy.)
(August 4, 2016 at 8:25 pm)wiploc Wrote:--edit--(August 3, 2016 at 11:29 am)bennyboy Wrote: That's right. And I think some here would do that-- "I have no active belief about either, so no and no."
I don't believe the cat is dead, and I don't believe it is alive. I don't believe either way. To say, "I have no belief about it," would stretch the point, for I believe the cat is in the box.
This is a pretty long answer to your simple statement. I'm answering your post, and also engaging in a new view on the agnostic position.
--/edit--
It occurs to me that your definition of believe and mine might be different. When I'm in an ambiguous situation, I hold multiple candidate beliefs. That is, I believe in their possibility or likelihood.
In my case, I'm fine with a belief about something being a set: the collection of possibilities which I think necessarily include the truth. For example, if my wife is murdered, and all the doors are locked, I would say I believe either Jenny, Suzy, or Johnny killed my wife. I wouldn't say I lack a belief that Jenny did it, or that Suzy did it, or that Johnny did it. If I really lacked a belief, I wouldn't bother investigating any of them. That I will closely and suspiciously investigate them all shows my real state: that I strongly believe one of them did it, and I need to collect knowledge to arrive at a gnostic position.
The set of possibilities is cat-alive and cat-dead. I'm 100% confident that the truth is contained by this set, and do not seriously consider other possibilities: for example, that the cat invented a wormhole device and is now safely living inside a moon in the Alpha Centauri system. That is my actual belief-- that the cat is either alive or dead. I believe this very strongly. As for WHICH of those strongly-believed candidates represents the truth, I'm agnostic. But forcing me to sate which I believe is like saying, "I'm thinking of an animal. Do you believe it's a duck?" A belief statement, including a statement of lack of belief, in this case is inappropriate-- I believe you are thinking of an animal, and I'm agnostic about which one it is.