Saturday, November 23, 2013

Could You Be Wrong About Everything You Know?


A common presuppositionalist question that Sye Ten Bruggencate and his idiot followers like Eric Hovind ask is whether it is possible that you could be wrong about everything you know. This question seeks to undermine your entire basis of knowledge from that point onward and if you answer yes, then in the eyes of Bruggencate and his ilk, you will have forfeited your right to make any truth claim.

But is it possible that you could be wrong about everything you know? The answer to that is - no. It is impossible. Think about this. If it is even possible that I could be wrong about everything I know, then I would know that it is possible that I could be wrong about everything I know, in which case I would be right about knowing that I could be wrong about everything I know, and that would defeat the whole argument. Thus it is impossible to be completely wrong about everything we know and the whole thing is self-defeating.

We could also point to some logical truths that must be true by definition, like for example, 20 is larger than 10, or that all blue cars are blue, or that all bachelors are unmarried, or that you cannot roll a 6 sided die and get a number greater than 6 or less than 1. These are logical truths that are impossible to be false, and we can be certain of that. Anyone who claims otherwise has the burden of proof.

So remember this if you ever get asked, especially if it is in person, if you could be wrong about everything you know. It's circular and self-defeating, and a total waste of time.


7 comments:

  1. OK. But you could be wrong about everything you know that comes from your senses. Is there anything you know that didn't come from your senses? You may not even have a body. This is the sort of thing that people are referring to, although usually to far-less-extreme degrees than I just presented ... usually more about elite conspiracy theories or as an intro to selling you snake oil.

    Given that our concept of "1" and "=" also came from our senses, I am even willing to say that 1=1 might be false. Of course I don't live my life with such doubt, because 1=1 has been working well for me. But I've never heard a satisfactory physical (not mathematical) explanation of what "1" even is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Even if we were living in a computer simulation or a dream, one thing is for sure, and that is that existence exists. It's undeniable.

      Delete
  2. Our definitions are correct simply because we define them, so they are only correct in a subjective sense. Math and logic are right is a relational sense. Absolute truths about reality may be impossible to come to, but essential truths about our consensus reality serve us well in a pragatic sense.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So Grundy, could you be wrong about everything you know?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am curious if you have a standard for burden of proof. It sounds as if you have determined that logical truths do not bear a burden of proof. I haven't thought about it in this way -- is there a reason you think this? Also, do you have a definition for "logical truths"? I don't, and I was curious what you categorized in this group.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well with the rolling of the die, that is something logically true that we can also empirically verify. I wouldn't say that all logical truths bear no burden of proof, but if something is a tautology, it is self-evidently true, or at least it seems that way to me. So I don't think I bear no burden of proof, just that the denier of these logical truths bears the greater burden than me. Does that make sense?

      Delete
    2. I'm just not sure. Like I said, I just haven't thought about it well enough.

      I think I was thrown by your suggesting that denying a logical truth moved the burden of proof to the denier of the logical truth; but I think that this is confounding, because logical consistency would be necessary in order to "prove" anything, and the denier of a logical truth would have no tools with which to work. Probably just my mis-reading what you wrote. Move along; nothing more to see here.

      Delete

Share

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...