(January 30, 2013 at 9:31 pm)pocaracas Wrote: You may believe it, but with nothing to guide you either way, it is not a clever position... Unless you're betting on it...then you'd want it to be true.
What if you don't believe that she's blonde? Does that mean that you automatically believe that she's not blonde?
Yes, it does.
(January 30, 2013 at 9:31 pm)pocaracas Wrote: Belief is a funny thing...has to start with some proposition, and then you may believe it or not.
Let's say some friend of yours comes to you and says "pocaracas' mum is blonde".you have no way of knowing if he knows my mum or not, so you either believe him, or you don't.
If you believe him, you believe that my mum is blonde. If you don't believe him, it simply means you realize he has no way of knowing that and he's probably messing with you... You don't believe the proposition that my mum is blonde and this says nothing about your belief in the proposition that she's not blonde.
You simply do not believe, period.
Its simpler than that actually. If I don't believe my friend, then I don't believe your mum is blonde. I am capable of accepting that I don't have a way of knowing and that my belief regarding it can be easily changed by the slightest amount of evidence presented, all the while realizing that even without evidence, whether I believe my friend or not, I am professing a belief.
(January 30, 2013 at 9:31 pm)pocaracas Wrote: If no one proposes to you that my mum is blonde, you may still come up with that idea by yourself... But what would prompt you into coming up with such an idea? Most likely, some information like you knowing that I'm blonde...which you could get from some photo. Then you'd plug in your knowledge of genetics (even if just empirical) and determine how likely it is for my mum to be as blonde as I am...if you find it likely, then it makes sense for you to believe that she's blonde.if you find it unlikely, it makes sense that you'd believe that she's not blonde. If you find that the likelihood of her being blonde is the same or very close to the likelihood of her not being blonde, then you're back at the no info either way position... And one where belief either way is not very smart.
You seem to be of the opinion that in absence of any evidence professing any belief is not "smart" - why is that?
