Hmm. What you're saying makes a lot of sense but I have been mulling over a similar issue and I tend to disagree, at least partially.
I am not a big fan of proof. Proof definitely has it's practical uses, in a lot of things it is a definite requirement for an idea to make any sense at all. But there are a lot of issues for which no physical proof can be found. Things like that involve educated guessing and theorizing, the reason I find that to be so useful is not as a means of arguement because no one will take an unproven argument seriously (unfortunately) but because, in my opinion, if gives people a chance to discover their own proof.
For instance, if a religious discussing occurs between two people, one person is obviously the affirmative and the other is obviously the opposition, it's very difficult to find any sort of proof of religious points that are satisfactory to someone who opposes those points simply because religion is a sensitive issue. But, if you provided an idea as a foundation for thought to be built by the opposing person using his or her own experience and belifs...he or she might not agree with you and probab;ly never will but at least you've encouraged someone to think and form their own opinion. Ideally, I could share one of my own opinions with someone by giving them the background of my idea and handing it over to them to ponder, and then later we can discuss our collective findings. I think that method of learning is highly overlooked, unfortunately most people are not of a mind to listen to something they've never heard before and then interpret it for themselves. That makes me sad.
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Date: 2002-07-28 01:10 pm (UTC)I am not a big fan of proof. Proof definitely has it's practical uses, in a lot of things it is a definite requirement for an idea to make any sense at all. But there are a lot of issues for which no physical proof can be found. Things like that involve educated guessing and theorizing, the reason I find that to be so useful is not as a means of arguement because no one will take an unproven argument seriously (unfortunately) but because, in my opinion, if gives people a chance to discover their own proof.
For instance, if a religious discussing occurs between two people, one person is obviously the affirmative and the other is obviously the opposition, it's very difficult to find any sort of proof of religious points that are satisfactory to someone who opposes those points simply because religion is a sensitive issue. But, if you provided an idea as a foundation for thought to be built by the opposing person using his or her own experience and belifs...he or she might not agree with you and probab;ly never will but at least you've encouraged someone to think and form their own opinion. Ideally, I could share one of my own opinions with someone by giving them the background of my idea and handing it over to them to ponder, and then later we can discuss our collective findings. I think that method of learning is highly overlooked, unfortunately most people are not of a mind to listen to something they've never heard before and then interpret it for themselves. That makes me sad.