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Old 02-14-2011, 08:11 PM   #189
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Re: New Internal Style of The Wooden Staff

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Graham Christian wrote: View Post
Mary, Mary, Quite contrary.
Wow, I never heard that one before. Do you remember the one about the little lamb? I can never quite remember how it goes, so obviously I haven't heard it enough.
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Graham Christian wrote: View Post
Very funny. Opposite of a zen koan eh?
Yes, it is. It is simple and straightforward, and there is no intuitive leap required.

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
What I am aware of, can demonstrate and show to be real are facts therefore. I own my own facts and your view on them would thus be your opinion.
My abilities are facts as are yours. You own them I hope.

Is this a layer you missed?
No, I think it's you who have misunderstood here. Let me try by way of a simple and specific example. You cannot state "Two plus two equals five!" and then when challenged on the basis that your statement contains a factual error, say, "But it's just my opinion!" Not everything is based in fact, but facts do exist, and they are objective truth, not matters of opinion. You do not "own your own facts". No one does. You do not own your own universe where two plus two can equal five, or pi, or tiramisu.

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
To weigh up facts on both sides eh? To discard the opinions and weigh up the facts. Mmmm. Maybe your a judge.
And maybe you're someone who is invested in believing that there are no facts, and thus, no basis for judgment, ever. Why is that?

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
It all sounds very logical but there is more to wisdom than counting up facts like a balance sheet. There's degree of importance, there's relevence, there's all the facts that not been divulged.
There is no wisdom in confusing fact with opinion.

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Graham Christian wrote: View Post
So the facts presented on count may favor one side like a balance sheet so what? This means you have some knowledge. Ever heard the saying about a little knowledge?
Indeed I do. A little knowledge encourages sophistry and obfuscation.

Consider another example that has two sides. On the one side, you have a Holocaust survivor. She tells about the atrocities that she has suffered and witnessed -- atrocities also amply documented by the accounts of others. Then, on the other side, you have a Holocaust denier, who says, "It never happened."

Two sides, one with the weight of evidence and witness...the other, a fabrication based on a desire to believe something contrary to reality. Do you think that "so what" is an adequate response to that? Saying "so what" is making a false equivalence, considering the two sides as having equal weight and merit. They do not. Approaching a question without prejudice, without pre-judging, is not the same as approaching it (as you seem to want to do) with a pre-judgment that both sides are of equal merit.

Quote:
Graham Christian wrote: View Post
Knowledge is a body or group of data. It has nothing to do with knowing.
How can it not? The words have the same root. Knowing, by definition, is to have knowledge.

Last edited by lbb : 02-14-2011 at 08:14 PM.
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