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Single Idea 12599

[filed under theme 2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 6. Coherence ]

Full Idea

Conservatism is important; you should continue to believe as you do in the absence of any special reason to doubt your view, and in reasoning you should try to minimize change in your initial opinions in attaining other goals of reasoning.

Gist of Idea

Reason conservatively: stick to your beliefs, and prefer reasoning that preserves most of them

Source

Gilbert Harman ((Nonsolipsistic) Conceptual Role Semantics [1987], 12.2.6)

Book Ref

Harman,Gilbert: 'Reasoning Meaning and Mind' [OUP 1999], p.217

A Reaction

One of those principles like Ockham's Razor, which feels right but hard to justify. It seems the wrong principle for someone who can reason well, but has been brainwashed into a large collection of daft beliefs. Japanese soldiers still fighting WWII.

The 70 ideas from Gilbert Harman

19304 The rules of reasoning are not the rules of logic [Harman]
19303 Implication just accumulates conclusions, but inference may also revise our views [Harman]
19305 The Gambler's Fallacy (ten blacks, so red is due) overemphasises the early part of a sequence [Harman]
19308 We strongly desire to believe what is true, even though logic does not require it [Harman]
19306 It is a principle of reasoning not to clutter your mind with trivialities [Harman]
19307 If there is a great cost to avoiding inconsistency, we learn to reason our way around it [Harman]
19309 Logic has little relevance to reasoning, except when logical conclusions are immediate [Harman]
19310 High probability premises need not imply high probability conclusions [Harman]
19311 In revision of belief, we need to keep track of justifications for foundations, but not for coherence [Harman]
19312 Coherence is intelligible connections, especially one element explaining another [Harman]
12588 Meaning from use of thoughts, constructed from concepts, which have a role relating to reality [Harman]
12589 Some regard conceptual role semantics as an entirely internal matter [Harman]
12590 Take meaning to be use in calculation with concepts, rather than in communication [Harman]
12592 Concepts in thought have content, but not meaning, which requires communication [Harman]
12591 Mastery of a language requires thinking, and not just communication [Harman]
12593 The use theory attaches meanings to words, not to sentences [Harman]
12594 If one proposition negates the other, which is the negative one? [Harman]
12596 Reasoning aims at increasing explanatory coherence [Harman]
12595 We have a theory of logic (implication and inconsistency), but not of inference or reasoning [Harman]
12597 I might accept P and Q as likely, but reject P-and-Q as unlikely [Harman]
12598 Reality is the overlap of true complete theories [Harman]
12599 Reason conservatively: stick to your beliefs, and prefer reasoning that preserves most of them [Harman]
12600 The content of thought is relations, between mental states, things in the world, and contexts [Harman]
12601 The way things look is a relational matter, not an intrinsic matter [Harman]
12602 There is no natural border between inner and outer [Harman]
12603 We can only describe mental attitudes in relation to the external world [Harman]
5120 What counts as 'flourishing' must be relative to various sets of values [Harman]
5121 Basing ethics on flourishing makes it consequentialist, as actions are judged by contributing to it [Harman]
8800 If you would deny a truth if you know the full evidence, then knowledge has social aspects [Harman, by Sosa]
17060 Best Explanation is the core notion of epistemology [Harman, by Smart]
8130 Qualities of experience are just representational aspects of experience ('Representationalism') [Harman, by Burge]
5122 Maybe consequentialism is a critique of ordinary morality, rather than describing it [Harman]
5123 Maybe there is no such thing as character, and the virtues and vices said to accompany it [Harman]
5124 If a person's two acts of timidity have different explanations, they are not one character trait [Harman]
5125 Virtue ethics might involve judgements about the virtues of actions, rather than character [Harman]
6950 You can be rational with undetected or minor inconsistencies [Harman]
6951 Ordinary rationality is conservative, starting from where your beliefs currently are [Harman]
6952 Induction is 'defeasible', since additional information can invalidate it [Harman]
6953 All reasoning is inductive, and deduction only concerns implication [Harman]
6955 Enumerative induction is inference to the best explanation [Harman]
6954 A coherent conceptual scheme contains best explanations of most of your beliefs [Harman]
6369 In negative coherence theories, beliefs are prima facie justified, and don't need initial reasons [Harman, by Pollock/Cruz]
3073 We see ourselves in the world as a map [Harman]
3074 People's reasons for belief are rarely conscious [Harman]
3075 Could a cloud have a headache if its particles formed into the right pattern? [Harman]
3076 Defining dispositions is circular [Harman]
3077 Reasoning might be defined in terms of its functional role, which is to produce knowledge [Harman]
3078 Speech acts, communication, representation and truth form a single theory [Harman]
3079 Truth in a language is explained by how the structural elements of a sentence contribute to its truth conditions [Harman]
3081 A theory of truth in a language must involve a theory of logical form [Harman]
3080 Logical form is the part of a sentence structure which involves logical elements [Harman]
3082 Ambiguity is when different underlying truth-conditional structures have the same surface form [Harman]
3083 Many predicates totally resist translation, so a universal underlying structure to languages is unlikely [Harman]
3084 Our underlying predicates represent words in the language, not universal concepts [Harman]
3085 Sentences are different from propositions, since two sentences can express one proposition [Harman]
3087 The analytic/synthetic distinction is a silly division of thought into encyclopaedia and dictionary [Harman]
3086 Are there any meanings apart from in a language? [Harman]
3088 Analyticity is postulated because we can't imagine some things being true, but we may just lack imagination [Harman]
3089 Only lack of imagination makes us think that 'cats are animals' is analytic [Harman]
3090 There is only similarity in meaning, never sameness in meaning [Harman]
3092 If you believe that some of your beliefs are false, then at least one of your beliefs IS false [Harman]
3093 Any two states are logically linked, by being entailed by their conjunction [Harman]
3094 You don't have to accept the conclusion of a valid argument [Harman]
3095 Induction is an attempt to increase the coherence of our explanations [Harman]
3097 We don't distinguish between accepting, and accepting as evidence [Harman]
3096 Coherence avoids scepticism, because it doesn't rely on unprovable foundations [Harman]
3098 Deductive logic is the only logic there is [Harman]
3099 Inference is never a conscious process [Harman]
3101 Memories are not just preserved, they are constantly reinferred [Harman]
3100 You have to reaffirm all your beliefs when you make a logical inference [Harman]