(August 4, 2014 at 2:50 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Regarding the question of what constitutes evidence, well that would depend on the claim, wouldn't it? Can you imagine a courtroom scene in which the counsel for prosecution asks the defence counsel what evidence she'd accept?
The thing about this "what kind of evidence do you want?" question- which Frasier did use a few pages back by asking how we defined evidence- is that it also tips the questioner's hand: a properly justified case that the presenter feels would actually stand up to the scrutiny we would place on it would already be prepared. It would literally just be the evidence that convinced the person presenting the case. By asking the question what I immediately feel is that I'm not in a conversation with a person interested in finding out the truth, but rather of convincing me of their position by hook or by crook with cherry picked evidence based around what I would find compelling, rather than just... what the evidence is.
If you actually answer that question you've walked out of honest discourse and into a dog and pony show for the belief in question, regardless of its eventual truth value.
"YOU take the hard look in the mirror. You are everything that is wrong with this world. The only thing important to you, is you." - ronedee
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Want to see more of my writing? Check out my (safe for work!) site, Unprotected Sects!