Snippitts of Illusions

Doubt. It's a great tool that can be used for both good or bad. It can lead to questions, that can lead for the search for truth. Or, it can lead to deep seated cynicism. Philosophy has doubt rooted firmly in it's structure. Perhaps this is why philosophers have such difficulty getting anything done. Science has doubt worked in. You never test a theory as if you believe it, only if you doubt it. Thank you Karl Popper, he's the philosopher who came up with the scientific method. Religion and doubt conflict. It did with the Catholic church and all those wonderful sects that broke off from it. That is perhaps the largest religious schism due to doubt.

Here's food for thought. What is it to doubt? What is it you are doubting exactly?; The facts, the words or the facts behind the words? Actions? How is it that one doubts? What are the mental processes that one goes through when doubting something? When is it that the doubting occurs: before, after or during the pronouncement of the doubting? Doubting is such a powerful tool, but it is also a dangerous weapon.

There are only a certain level of things that can be earnestly doubtable, though there are individuals who tried to go beyond these levels. On the surface are things anyone can question. These are not deeply rooted beliefs, but surface bits of hearsay and possible fiction. Then there are things that can be doubted with evidence to support such doubt. After this comes things that we have a little more grasping to. It's about here that things get more difficult to doubt, and when doubting occurs, it begins to change our perception of things on those levels above. Then there are what could be called secondary beliefs. These are beliefs that are rooted in basic explainations of the first layers of beliefs below and dependent on them, but still changeable and doubtable without changing those beliefs on the layer below. The layer below... is foundational. Beliefs so inate to an individual that almost without exception every individual in the world has most of the same beliefs. There is a fine line between these foundational beliefs and secondary beliefs, but it is there, and the one changes with difficulty, the other.... Well the foundational beliefs, in order to doubt them you'd have to convince a two year old that you don't exsist... Good luck.

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 3:35 PM