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Invent Yourself scripsit: > I say it's a bogus contradiction, because under the scrutiny of precise > language, any rational person would understand that the uncertainty of the > truth of the set of their beliefs would have to be distributed among the > individual beliefs, because the certainty of beliefs is a conserved > quantity which isn't affected by the number of beliefs held. I never can understand you when you become metaphysical. Why on earth would you think the certainty of beliefs is conserved? Do you suppose that as I add additional tentative beliefs, the older firm ones that I hold become more tentative? > Furthermore, most people *suspect* there is a possibility that their > beliefs *could be proven in the future* to be false, but at the current > moment, the evidence has not yet been produced. No, I do more than suspect it, I firmly believe it: some of my beliefs are wrong, though I don't know which ones. Furthermore, I may and probably do have erroneous beliefs that I will never have corrected. -- John Cowan jcowan@hidden.email www.reutershealth.com ccil.org/~cowan Dievas dave dantis; Dievas duos duonos --Lithuanian proverb Deus dedit dentes; deus dabit panem --Latin version thereof Deity donated dentition; deity'll donate doughnuts --English version by Muke Tever God gave gums; God'll give granary --Version by Mat McVeagh