67. What does man think for?
There is no such thing as a “thought-experiment”. I
believe that more boilers would explode if people did not calculate when making
boilers. Does it follow that there will in fact be fewer? The belief that fire will burn me is of
the same nature as the fear that it will burn me.
‘What does man think for?’ –
what if the answer was – no one knows – but various proposals – various
answers to this question are possible?
the other thing to say here – is that we need to take a step back –
and begin with the fact that ‘that man thinks’ – is a proposition – is a
proposal –
open to question – open to doubt
as to thought experiments –
it strikes me that the idea behind denying thought experiments is to
argue for some kind of certainty
what we have – what we operate with is proposals – propositions –
the proposition is open to question – open to doubt – is uncertain
propositional uncertainty is the ground and reality of propositional
activity
our world is propositional – we are propositional
‘I believe that more boilers would explode if people did not calculate
when making boilers.
yes – you can have this belief –
but what if instead you believed that
if people did not calculate when making boilers – then they would make boilers
that just don’t work – have no function – exploding or otherwise?
any belief you have – logically
speaking – is uncertain –
the ‘knowledge’ – you base your
belief on – is uncertain –
if you hold that your belief is
not open to question –
what you are holding – what you
are putting forward – is a prejudice –
and the ground of prejudice is
stupidity –
too much of this and you will be
a stupid person
‘Does it follow that there will in fact be fewer?’
not necessarily – you may just
have an industry that mass produces boilers – more and more boilers – that
don’t produce a spark
‘The belief that fire will burn me is of the same nature as the fear
that it will burn me.’?
as a young magician I learnt that if you pass a flame over your fingers
– that is keep the flame moving and keep your fingers still – or visa versa
– hold the flame still and keep
your fingers moving – the flame
will not burn you
you can try this at home
© greg t. charlton. 2014.
