Re: Atlantean

Adam Walker scripsit:

> My skin just crawls when I hear statements like that.
> I sometimes wonder if I'm the only human being who
> still believes that objective truth exists.  And that
> knowing and believing the real truth not just the
> convinient or happy truth is important.
Absolutely.  But how do we get to the real truth, except retrospectively?
We can often find out that something we believed was true was in fact
false ("Oops, no money in this wallet!  What now?").  But other than
truth from authority (and there is no one authority that all will
accept), other truths are invariably tentative, subject to revision.
"A fact", said Stephen Jay Gould, "is a hypothesis from which it would
be perverse to withhold provisional assent."  That's the best we get.

--
John Cowan       http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        <jcowan@...>
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  `Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)