From: robert@kohlrabi.tcs.com (Robert Blumen)
Subject: Re: Evidence vs Faith
Organization: Teknekron Communications Systems Inc.
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 22:08:25 GMT

In article <C17MA2.CHp@newcastle.ac.uk>, Chris.Holt@newcastle.ac.uk (Chris Holt) writes:
> robert@kohlrabi.tcs.com (Robert Blumen) writes:

> >Most people I have met who hold free-market views, since they are in an
> >intellectual minority, have had to exhaustively research these ideas inside
> >and out, to convince themselves no less, and to have any chance to convince
> >others.  But many people who hold sort-of-wishy-washy liberal-socialist
> >views simply absorb them from the surrounding environment without much
> >thought (not to say that there aren't many very well informed and well read
> >liberals and socialists,too...)
> 
> Surely there are knee-jerk liberals and knee-jerk socialists, just as
> there are knee-jerk free-marketeers.  All of these people are
> attracted to their theories because of upbringing, or because the
> theories are often over-simplified, making them easy to understand.

Yes, I agree with you that there are both well informed and dogmatic people
of all philosophical persuasions.  What I was complaining about more than
the previous poster's comment is the double standard in the media of
characterizing free-market views as based on faith.  How often do you read
an article characterizing liberal views as based on "a mystical faith in
the power of government to solve our problems"?

> The interesting part is that there *are* intelligent and well-informed
> people who adhere to all these positions.  This suggests (unless you
> believe you hold a monopoly on truth) that the evidence supports
> more than one interpretation, which suggests that different models
> may be applicable in different circumstances.  The challenge then
> is to characterize the situations in which a particular model offers
> a useful approximation.

Truth is a hard subject.  I wouldn't say that I have a monopoly on it,
which is different than believing that I am right about certain things,
which I do.  My belief in my own views is always tempered with a bit of
skepticism (or quite a lot for things I know less about) that I could be
wrong, and there could be some evidence or flaws in reasoning that could
make me change my mind.   I think of someone having a "monopoly on truth"
as someone who not only believes that they are right, but that they
couldn't possibly be wrong.

But I don't necessarily agree with your conclusion here.  In cases where
inteligent and well-read people disagree, does that imply that they are all
equally right (and all equally wrong?).  

You are saying that because there are intelligent people a bit of free
market here, a bit of regulated market there, a bit of socialism on
the side is the best solution because there are some intelligent people who
advocate each one of these.  This is the so-called "mixed economy".  But
the advocates of any one of the competing views, such as socialism, pure
free-market, Marxism, etc.  would surely not agree with this.  

Let's push the debate back one meta-level.  Are you saying that (1) "when
intelligent, committed and well-read people disagree then the solution is
that they are all right some of the time?"  What about the idea that in
such a case (2) "some of them are right and some of them are mistaken, and
perhaps the future will tell which are which" There are many examples of
this, too.  There are fields where intelligent people strongly believed in
certain ideas, such as Einstein's opposition to quantum mechanics, where
they turned out to be flat-out wrong.  How do you decide between idea (1)
and idea (2)?  

I would say that if you are going to advocate the mixed economy you need to
defened it on its own theoretical grounds rather than saying that the
advocates of "extreme" positions cannot be consistently right or wrong
because they are all smart and they disagree.  I would say that some of
these models can be quite thoroughly wrong.

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Robert Blumen                          | robert@tcs.com
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Newsgroups: alt.philosophy.objectivism