tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post5841873900896608734..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: 8: MoralityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-3315843156899180212021-01-12T01:57:56.712+00:002021-01-12T01:57:56.712+00:00Good distinction, Andrew. Strong Bulverism creates...Good distinction, Andrew. Strong Bulverism creates "facts" ex nihilo. Weak Bulverism takes existing facts and pushes whichever interpretation of them favours the result the speaker likes.<br />"This has failed no fewer than ten times."<br />"Well, yes, but eight of those ten times were over 50 years ago, and the ninth was in the middle of the Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020-2023. So really, looking at recent data, there's a 90% chance it won't fail."<br />Or, put another way, Weak Bulverism is less like "this patently empty glass, so dry that I could put my cellphone inside it without any risk of water damage, is actually full" and more like "Sure, we've got enough petrol in the tank to get there in time. If we stop to buy fuel, we'll miss the start of the movie."<br />"But the gauge is just hovering over the EMPTY bar."<br />"Yeah, but when Dad was teaching me to drive, he said manufacturers always leave an extra 15 kilometres worth as a cushion."<br />"But what if there's heavy traffic on the M1? That'll slow us down and burn more petrol..."<br />"Chill out. This car usually gets good mileage."<br />"You're only saying that because you're fixated on getting to the cinema in time to hear the drum-roll and see the screen crawl!"<br />"Well, this _is_ the last of George Lucas' nine envisaged STAR WARS films. It's a historic occasion... We'll never have this chance again."\<br />[etc]<br />In that case, there _is_ a right answer (which currently known facts do point to) - we just don't know it yet, so we don't always know how much weight to give them.Tom Rnoreply@blogger.com