Notes on Truth, Beauty, and Goodness -- Phil A231

William Jamison - Instructor

Notes on reading Quine's book The Web of Belief

Preface

"lucubrations" =df "scholarly writings" or "reading by lamp light" (luce)

Introduction

All system is logic.

All science is system.

Therefore: All science is logic (i.e. rational)

Everyone can do science but to really discover something new you have to first be familiar with what is already known! Since we already know so much you have to make it a long career to become a scientist.

p. 5 "In the chapters ahead we will be interested in the ways of acquiring and sustaining right beliefs, be they pleasant or painful."

..."For one thing, much science has grown so sophisticated that its practice is out of reach for most of us."

p. 6 Attacks on the scientific establishment: "you...can't disprove it!"

Why is this the case?

Belief and Change of Belief

p. 9 "...believing is not an activity."

Belief (I believe) Disbelief (I do not believe) Non-Belief (I don't know)

p. 13 "Believing something does not count as knowing it unless what is believed is in fact true."

"Truth is a property of sentences." (Today we might change this and say "statements" or "propositions" instead of "sentences".)

p. 14 "A person need never have assessed the evidence for anything in order to be rich in opinion."

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