08-08-2013, 02:47 PM
Albert Rossi Wrote:I cannot speak for others, but I certainly do not see all events through a conspiracy filter. And "conspiracy" is such a vague and all-embracing concept anyway that to say conspiracy is to say little.
I think there is much truth in what you say about filtering, Jeffrey, and it does not apply only to belief in conspiracy, but could be seen as a general epistemological precept. I think all scholars of history or the human sciences worth their salt are constantly aware of this problem. I think that natural scientists have analogous problems (witness the anthropic principle, at least in some of its manifestations). Ultimately there is no absolute way out of it, but we all must be honest enough to admit that it operates in subtle ways that sometimes we cannot control. But awareness is half the battle.
I think you have this correct. What I was trying to say is that in these debates I find that most people refuse to see or accept their bias and that it may and likely does influence how the see things. Most will claim they are objective and as you point out the intellectually honest understand this is a platonic ideal.