Heh. You are actually close to agreeing with Hofstadter -and me-, because where he is talking about the issue of 'absolute' truth he is arguing against the 'unfounded crap', or more specifically against those matters that have been proven not to be scientifically true many times before. Especially for you, a follow up on the article above:
"... I happen to feel that much of parapsychology has been afforded too much credibility. I feel that ESP and so on are incompatible with science for very fundamental reasons. In other words, I feel that they are so unlikely to be the case that people who spend their time [still] investigating them really do not understand science well. And so I am impatient with them. Instead of welcoming them into scientific organizations, I would like to see them kicked out. Now this doesn't mean that I feel that debating about the reasons I find ESP (etc.) incompatible with science at a very deep level is worthless. Quite to the contrary: coming to understand how to sift the true from the false is exceedingly subtle and important. But that doesn't mean that all pretenders to truth should be accorded respect. It's a terribly complex issue. Non of us sees the full truth on it. [...] There is a legitimate, indeed, very deep question, as to when that moment of 'obviousness', that moment of 'snapping' or 'clicking', comes about. Certainly I'd be the first to say that that's as deep a question as one can ask. But that's a question about the nature of truth, evidence, perception, categories, and so forth and so on. It's not a question about parapsychology... [etc.]
[...] But my point of view is that there is such a thing as being too open-minded. I am not open-minded about the earth being flat, about whether Hitler is alive today, about claims by people who have squared a circle, or to have proven special relativity wrong. I am also not open-minded with respect to the paranormal. And I think it is wrong to be open-minded with respect to these things, just as I think it is wrong to be open-minded about whether or not the Nazis killed six million Jews in World War II. I am open-minded, to some extent, about questions of ape language, dolphin language, and so on. I haven't reached any final, firm conclusion there."
And in response to the puppy-eyes from earlier this afternoon: yes, I will post more excerpts from other parts and chapters:)
no subject
"... I happen to feel that much of parapsychology has been afforded too much credibility. I feel that ESP and so on are incompatible with science for very fundamental reasons. In other words, I feel that they are so unlikely to be the case that people who spend their time [still] investigating them really do not understand science well. And so I am impatient with them. Instead of welcoming them into scientific organizations, I would like to see them kicked out.
Now this doesn't mean that I feel that debating about the reasons I find ESP (etc.) incompatible with science at a very deep level is worthless. Quite to the contrary: coming to understand how to sift the true from the false is exceedingly subtle and important. But that doesn't mean that all pretenders to truth should be accorded respect.
It's a terribly complex issue. Non of us sees the full truth on it. [...]
There is a legitimate, indeed, very deep question, as to when that moment of 'obviousness', that moment of 'snapping' or 'clicking', comes about. Certainly I'd be the first to say that that's as deep a question as one can ask. But that's a question about the nature of truth, evidence, perception, categories, and so forth and so on. It's not a question about parapsychology... [etc.]
[...] But my point of view is that there is such a thing as being too open-minded. I am not open-minded about the earth being flat, about whether Hitler is alive today, about claims by people who have squared a circle, or to have proven special relativity wrong. I am also not open-minded with respect to the paranormal. And I think it is wrong to be open-minded with respect to these things, just as I think it is wrong to be open-minded about whether or not the Nazis killed six million Jews in World War II.
I am open-minded, to some extent, about questions of ape language, dolphin language, and so on. I haven't reached any final, firm conclusion there."
And in response to the puppy-eyes from earlier this afternoon: yes, I will post more excerpts from other parts and chapters:)