Re:Facts don’t change our minds (2018)
by afarrell on Friday December 10, 2021 @11:29AM
(#29511781)
You’ll see these questions more clearly once you start applying Hume’s Guilloine:
Some questions are “is” questions: objective truths about the world and how causality operates within it.
Some questions are “ought” questions: choices about what we enjoy, want, or consider unjust.
I ate dinner last night because my biology is such that I feel sluggish and distracted if I forget to eat and I ought take care of myself to keep from feeling sluggish and distracted.
Facts won’t change people’s minds on “ought” questions. Only stories can do that. But if people aren’t muddling their is-oughts then facts can change their minds on “is” questions. If they couldn’t, then science and engineering would make no progress.
Some questions are “is” questions: objective truths about the world and how causality operates within it.
Some questions are “ought” questions: choices about what we enjoy, want, or consider unjust.
I ate dinner last night because my biology is such that I feel sluggish and distracted if I forget to eat and I ought take care of myself to keep from feeling sluggish and distracted.
Facts won’t change people’s minds on “ought” questions. Only stories can do that. But if people aren’t muddling their is-oughts then facts can change their minds on “is” questions. If they couldn’t, then science and engineering would make no progress.