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A Fact, or Something Less?
If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound?
---a common koan
Introduction:
What makes a fact factual, something more than just an assertion? What
gives a fact its factness?
Assertion: Santa Claus, the real one---not those department store knock-offs---exists.
Question: What evidence could "prove" the existence of Santa
Claus?
Is the existence of Santa Claus (a.k.a., Saint Nick, Saint Nicholas,
Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost) a fact or a myth? Will the eyewitness
testimonies of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of children make
you believe that Santa Claus is a fact? Will you say that the testimony
of children lacks sufficient credibility?
Let's try another assertion:
Assertion: The sun circles the earth.
Question: What evidence could be used to "prove" that the sun
circles the earth?
Before, and even during, the time of Galileo, hundreds of thousands
of adults could be found who would testify that the sun circled the earth.
Adults make credible witnesses; don't they? Hundreds of thousands of witnesses
could could have been found to testify that they personally have observed
the sun move from horizon-to-horizon once every twenty-four hours. What
better evidence and testimony could a lawyer (even a lawyer of an Holy
Inquisition) want?
For centuries, the idea that the sun circled the earth was accepted
as a fact by nearly everyone alive. Today, this idea is not accepted as
a fact. In fact
(whatever that means), most people now accept the notion of a heliocentric
system of planets as a fact. Is that because all observed systems of planets
are heliocentric? Or, do we accept a heliocentric solar system as a fact
for other reasons?
Journal Activity---Part One of Two
It seems clear that having belief, physical evidence, and testimony is
not sufficient to prove that an assertion is a fact. What other things
might be
necessary?
- Form a group with at least two other people.
- Create a written list of criteria, things, or methods you think are
useful, if not necessary, to prove that an assertion is a fact.
Suggestion: if you get stuck, think about how scientists and lawyers
make a case for something.
Journal Activity---Part Two of Two
In your group, discuss the items in "Things to Ponder."
You might want to take notes.
Things to Ponder
- How reliable is eyewitness testimony?
- How many reliable witnesses need to testify to the factness of some
event (e.g., man landing on the moon) to "prove" that an assertion
should be accepted as a fact? What qualifications or characteristics
should a reliable witness have?
- What assumptions underlie the credibility of a "chain of evidence"
in our legal system?
- How might the possibility of a undetected difference between your
perception of a thing and the thing itself affect your view of "facts"?
If you do not believe that an undetected difference can exist between
your perception of a thing and the thing itself, what explanation will
you
offer for the phenomena of psychosis and red-green color blindness?
- Why might it be plausible that factness is a value (like good/bad,
true/false, right/wrong, et cetera) that individuals and even societies
assign to pieces of knowledge (an assignment that is based upon certain
criteria that seem suitable to those individuals and societies at a
particular point in time)?
Journal Assignment:
Explore your experience with today's journal activity and group activity.
Use the questions in "Things to Ponder" (above) as a springboard.
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