Part of a series which began with Fake news and the ethics of belief.
I openly believe both that I believe that it is raining outside and that I do so because I see the rain through the window.1
This is how Adler illustrates his ‘condition of full awareness’. This is another important aspect of his first-person approach (see previous instalment).
Part of a series which began with Fake news and the ethics of belief.
This is how my evidence principle is currently worded:
[EP3] If anything is morally wrong, then it is morally wrong to believe anything, within the category of descriptive belief, on insufficient evidence, in the absence of any conflicting and overriding moral imperative.
Last time I suggested a reason for thinking EP3 could perhaps apply to any descriptive belief.
There could be obligations implicit in belief language itself. These obligations would relate to the expectations our listeners might be justified in having when they hear any descriptive belief vocalised.
Particularly, perhaps, if our understanding of ‘belief’ is anything like Jonathan Adler’s.
Part of a series which began with Fake news and the ethics of belief.
’I don’t need to believe. I know.’
So said Carl Gustav Jung in 1959 when John Freeman asked him on BBC TV’s Face to Face whether he believed in God.
He later regretted that his reply was too short and too open to misunderstanding. But we’ll leave that can of worms safely shut for now.
Part of a series which began with Fake news and the ethics of belief.
Evidence was a 1922 silent film directed by George Archainbaud and starring Elaine Hammerstein.
This article is not about this Evidence however but about evidence as something that may or may not support a belief.
This follows When in doubt, answer a different question.
On BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions 10 April 2020 Jill Morris asked:
Does the coronavirus prove that God does not exist?
Last to respond was Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, who quoted Holocaust survivor Rabbi Hugo Gryn:
‘People sometimes ask me ‘Where was God in Auschwitz?’ I believe God was there himself violated and blasphemed. The real question is ‘Where was man in Auschwitz?’
When politicians are asked a question they don’t want to answer you expect them to employ their usual tactic. This is to answer a different question, one they are happy to answer, and hope no one notices.
But it’s not only politicians who do this.
On BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions 10 April 2020 there were two politicians and two non-politicians. About 34 minutes into the program Jill Morris from Stafford asked what I thought was a very interesting question:
Does the coronavirus prove that God does not exist?
