Empirical evidence
First off, "truth" is a vague and meaningless concept to most people. I like to be practical, so I'll say I'm looking for "the best explanation of what I experience." The best may not be perfect, but it's better to admit that than to have "faith" that some other vaguely defined explanation is in fact the end all be all perfect answer to everything (e.g. God is the answer to everything). Having said that,
empirical evidence and scientific methodologies in general are simply the most reliable way to arrive at an accurate description of the world. It's not so much that science always completely explains everything, but more that every other means of knowing has been shown throughout history to be less reliable. For example, "go with your gut feeling" is advice I've heard several times from pastors and the like, but there's no real reason I can think of why this might be a better plan than "think it over with your brain".
So my question to Berto, and anyone else, is this: Besides empirical evidence, meaning based on your senses, what other evidence is there to consider that has ever been shown to be reliable?
And to be pre-emptive: I'm not just talking about "what you can put in a test tube". Anything you can sense and objectively evaluate counts.
"What about love? Your cold empirical science can never explain love." Tell me what love is and I'll explain it to you. I think love is a name that we have for a certain collection of feelings and desires that exist because they are useful for the survival of our species. Think it's something more? What EXACTLY is there to it that's more than that?
empirical evidence and scientific methodologies in general are simply the most reliable way to arrive at an accurate description of the world. It's not so much that science always completely explains everything, but more that every other means of knowing has been shown throughout history to be less reliable. For example, "go with your gut feeling" is advice I've heard several times from pastors and the like, but there's no real reason I can think of why this might be a better plan than "think it over with your brain".
So my question to Berto, and anyone else, is this: Besides empirical evidence, meaning based on your senses, what other evidence is there to consider that has ever been shown to be reliable?
And to be pre-emptive: I'm not just talking about "what you can put in a test tube". Anything you can sense and objectively evaluate counts.
"What about love? Your cold empirical science can never explain love." Tell me what love is and I'll explain it to you. I think love is a name that we have for a certain collection of feelings and desires that exist because they are useful for the survival of our species. Think it's something more? What EXACTLY is there to it that's more than that?
posted by Robert at
7:20 PM
4 Comments:
on truth:
i am currently of the opinion that truth is so alarmingly temporary as to be nearly useless in everyday society. things seem in constant decay or regeneration that any truth changes the instant it is decided.
on "going with your gut":
i am of the opinion that indeed that is unhelpful advice as it gives you no new info to work with.
on love:
i don't understand love but your theory completely eliminates the possibility of homosexual love and narcissism.
phil
By
Anonymous, at 12:33 AM
As I said in my comment on "The Soul", there certainly does seem to be something subjective about our experience which, in principle, is irreducible to the emperical. Science cannot, for instance, explain free will. The causal chains seem complete, and yet no one has credibly explained free will away.
The difficulty that you'll run into uniformly is that you're discussing things that have essentially nothing in common, and then saying that the one emerges from the other. You'll have to present a good methodological explanation for that before any purely emperical theory of the world will be complete.
By
Anonymous, at 1:25 PM
I want to start by saying that anyone who told you to just "think with your gut" was probably very wrong. Dude, if God created you, then he created you with a brain. In that case, he probably intended for you to use said brain.
As to love, I'm having some problems understanding how the whole thing works myself. From what I can gather, it seems like "love" can take many forms. I can love my best friend, my significant other, my mom and dad, my siblings... and it doesn't mean that I relate to them all in the same way. How does that work?
By
Anonymous, at 8:19 AM
In English you can love your wife and you can love steak.
In Hebrew the language does not allow you to say "I love steak". You can only love people. Love is actually 3 words in Hebrew. Rayah, Ahavah, and Dode.
Rayah = friendship - someone who knows the core of who you are and despite that, still wants to be your friend.
Ahavah = commitment - builds on top of Rayah. Hell or high water kind of commitment, if you will.
Dode = literal translation is a mingling of the souls. Sex. In hebrew dode is only used to describe sex in a relationship that exists with Ahavah and Rayah, in a marriage. The other word for sex is adultery.
So that's what love means in the Hebrew, and the Bible. But then again, who doesn't love steak?
By
Anonymous, at 6:57 PM
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