What are the parameters?

Posted by
Eudaemonic Pie on Jan 21, 2002 at 23:22
pppa17-resalecarsoncity1-1r7409.dialinx.net (4.16.206.46)

Re: Who brought in religion? (Sparrow)

How do you define belief?

One huge criticism has often been that if we allow for belief as an adaptive feature, then we end up with a Piaget-Lamarck-and-you (subjective) triage team and Ms. Cleo's psychic hot line isn't far behind. And yet, what else exactly could it mean that we don't learn by random association (ala a cognitive random variation), but instead we solve selected problems (defined by belief?). I know this wanders afield, but I'm curious how you define belief? Isn't the subjective question of belief in science itself a matter of making explicit our bias, so that when we do, then our bias forces us to face the standard question of where we will set our statistical criterion for hypothesis rejection? Why not study whether scientists get "high" en route? – are we doing it just for the endorphins? :))). Really, how to define belief?


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