Thinking

Some Thoughts on thought        http://www.home.earthlink.net/~jnewell957/#Articles
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        1) Common sense is reasoning based on long experience with all the elements of
            an argument. If there  is  no  long experience with one  or  more  element(s),
           then the use of common sense is not justified.
       2) It is better to believe, than not to, in everything that  one  hears  or  reads, that
          one cannot argue against. Certainly one will, as a result,  believe  false  inform-
          ation, but  eventually one will be able to sort out true from false. If one insists
          on only accepting information  from sources that have scientific or professional
          Standards one, ironically, will be very ignorant, as such information is expen-
          sive to produce and  thus the amount is very limited. In addition the economic
          forces that pay for it will suppress any negative information, thus making the
          exclusive user  of such  information  biassed. Other  criteria  for  used "truth"
          are the  "yuckie-yummy"   test,  the   authority   test   and   the   consistency
          test.  If  some information  is  yuckie,  it  is  false; if  it  is yummy,  it  is  true.
          The authority test holds that if information is consistent with  prestigious auth-
          orities then it is true, if not, then it is false.  The  consistency  test  holds  that
         if information is consistent with prior information  it is true and  if  not,  false.
       3) There is no periodical nor book  that  either  completely  true  or  completely
           false. Every book or periodical has  something  that is  true  and  of  possible
           value, even the writings of  Conservatives, Socialists, Catholics, Protestants,
          Hitler, Stalin or even Mao.
      4) The educational system develops the intellect of the child until the age of  nine
          or so, thereafter all that is taught is memorisation. Thus the intellectual level of
          999 of every 1000 adults is stuck at this level. Certainly rational thinking is tau-
          ght in certain specialties in colleges, such as law, medicine etc. but  the rational
          thought is only practised within their specialities; the rationality does not extend
          outside of the speciality and the experts think just as childishly  as  the  rest  of
          the population.
      5) Intuition is a sensitive instrument, but a dumb one. To rectify this,  dumb,  raw
          thoughts should be expressed in complete, grammatical English: then  the  thou-
          ghts could be rationally evaluated and the dumb ones identified.
      6) A statement that something does not exist (called a philosophically negative state-
          ment) can be difficult or impossible to prove. To prove a negative statement the
          author, or a reliable agent, must search the whole context stated  or  implied  by
          the statement. For example, "There are no apples in  those ten  boxes"  can   be
          easily proven. The statement: "There are no  icicles in Africa" would require the
          whole of Africa to be searched.