My favorite Oliver Wendell Holmes quote, by far:
Chauncey
Wright, a nearly forgotten philosopher of real merit, taught me when young that
I must not say necessary about the universe, that we don’t know
whether anything is necessary or not. I believe that we can bet on
the behavior of the universe in its contact with us. So I describe myself as a betabilitarian.
You may recall that Kant’s atypically good on betting, too.
HT: David Coker
READER COMMENTS
BZ
Sep 7 2016 at 2:16pm
Just because I like picking nits: That statement is itself a universal claim of necessity about the universe. Better to qualify it that Most claims regard complex matters about which we have less knowledge than confidence…
Comments are closed.