Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ptsfa!pacbell!att-ih!chinet!rissa
From: rissa@chinet.UUCP (Patricia O Tuama)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology
Subject: Re: real life
Message-ID: <3244@chinet.UUCP>
Date: 5 Mar 88 14:14:07 GMT
References: <294@dcc1.UUCP>
Organization: Chinet - Chicago Public Access UNIX
Lines: 26

In article <294@dcc1.UUCP> ann@dcc1.UUCP writes:
.>Some important facts:
.>1) If you influence people's beliefs, you influence their actions.
.>2) Sometimes the truth doesn't have the desired effect.
.>3) Most people can be convinced of beliefs by invalid arguments,
.>   or valid arguments based on doubtful evidence.
.>4) Almost everything we think we know about world events has been
.>   told to us by other people.
.>
.>Given (1), it's only natural that people spend a great deal of time 
.>in political arguments.  Given (2), many people will find the truth
.>doesn't help out their political purpose.  Some will realize that
.>conventionally defined truth is no help to them, and get around the
.>problem by redefining truth as "what it is useful to get other people
.>to believe".  Hence the title, "Strategic Epistemology".  From (3),
.>it follows that it is fairly easy to spread the new truth.  From (4),
.>and the above considerations, it doesn't quite follow that everything 
.>you know is wrong, but let's just say that a lot of it is doubtful.

I don't see how you can take any of these "facts" as "given" 
with the possible exception of #4.  If nothing else, your
coursework in psychology should be teaching you to approach
all such "truisms" with scepticism.  Universal facts are very
seldom either factual or universal.

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			t r i s h a   o t u a m a