230. "Don't tell me about your doubts, tell me something you BELIEVE in."

 

Let's say an Error Philosopher hears that, Dave Gardner playing the Southern preacher, and takes it seriously.

"Well, the first thing I believe in is my own mortality.  I am going to die and I don't know when.  If I thought I were going to live forever I'd be wrong to give up on the Ideal, the Truth.  If I thought I had no mortal limitations I'd be wrong to have such a low aim, to avoid Error.  I'd have time to overcome my limitations.  I couldn't be an Error Philosopher.

"The second thing I believe in is the Good Hunch, what truth philosophers call probable inference.  I believe that in the time I have, with my limited abilities, I can come pretty close to what brilliant creatures, with a lot of time, will conclude is very reliable belief.  I mean, close enough, enough anyway to get me through the rest of my life without making Big Mistakes.

"The third thing I believe in is the value of ordinary, normal life.  That's what avoidance of Big Mistakes lets you live.  It's so valuable that, especially for those who have made a Big Mistake or two, or come close, you don't mind missing out on the extraordinary."

Does that mean you doubt the value of the extraordinary achievement?

"No, I doubt the value of a gamble for it.  You often risk the loss of what I have put a high value on, normal life, and you don't get very good odds.  They're like for a straight flush.  But you've got to figure the odds in each case.  And keep in mind that there's a joker in this deck.  From time to time up jumps, from the normal life, an extraordinary achievement.  The person going along, enjoying all that daily life has to offer, suddenly produces work that knocks the socks off of everybody.  That's more likely in some fields than in others (I'm thinking of mathematics) but it's possible in all.  t has something to do, maybe, with peace of mind."

One last thing.  Why do you call this a "philosophy"?

"For the same reason Mark Twain signed a letter to the editor with the name of a preacher friend of his: to give it more weight."

And why do you capitalize so many of your ideas?

"Same reason.  It's what Germans do.  I've even considered giving the whole cluster a German name: Irrtumphilosophie."