'For the person or persons that hold dominion, can no more combine with the keeping up of majesty the running with harlots drunk or naked about the streets, or the performances of a stage player, or the open violation or contempt of laws passed by themselves than they can combine existence with non-existence'.

- Benedict de Spinoza. Political Treatise. 1677.




Friday, April 09, 2010

on certainty 399


399. But doesn’t my drawing the consequences only show that I accept this hypothesis?



you do what you do –

and yes –

you can reconstruct whatever you do –

in terms of a model like –

hypothesis and consequence –

and if that proves useful to you –

so be it

my point is –

there are any number of ways of interpreting –

anything –

the hypothesis / consequence model –

is just one such approach

and of course –

you always have the option of saying –

‘I don’t know ‘–

that is not adopting any interpretation

it should also be noted –

that even if you draw consequences –

from an hypothesis –

it doesn’t follow –

that you accept the hypothesis –

you may just be interested in –

exploring its consequences

and finally when you say –

you are drawing consequences –

can you be sure –

which hypothesis –

you are drawing –

your consequences from?


© greg t. charlton. 2010.