RE: The Trinity
January 22, 2021 at 4:36 pm
(This post was last modified: January 22, 2021 at 6:04 pm by John 6IX Breezy.)
(January 22, 2021 at 4:10 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: ...you could never find yourself in a position where you would be logically forced to abandon or reject a belief about the color of your shirt?
"For Quine, all changes made to our belief system, whether large or small, involve the same kind of holistic tinkering with the web of belief. We accommodate experience by making as few changes as possible and keeping our worldview as simple as we can. There is no distinction between changes within and changes between frameworks" (Godfrey, p. 118).
There's a distinction between statements of beliefs and those of observation, and your shirt analogy is vague in this regard. But if you're going to treat it as a belief, then Quine's arguments apply.
Every little child has asked whether the color red you see is the color red I see. If you're going to treat the color of your shirt as a belief, then you can logically prevent yourself from abandoning this belief in the face of observation by altering any of the auxiliary hypothesis upon which it is based. Look no further than the famous internet dress meme for examples of how our beliefs about color differ inspite of observation.
Reference: Godfrey, Peter. (2003). Theory and reality: An introduction to the philosophy of science. Chicago: Chicago University Press.