Music: ...he isn't at home just now... (and vacuum)
Interesting philosophical issues re: Iraq lead-up
Iraq: where the truth lies. Philosophical discussion related to the question of whether Bush and Blair can be said to have been lying to, or deceiving, or trying to deceive, the public.
Ah, yes. If you don't know what you're saying is false, is it a lie? Plausible deniability was a favorite of Nixon, and it works well for Bush, too. Or if there's a way to parse the words such that the statement is not technically false, even though it generates a misleading impression, is it a "lie"?
Now, we can't complain that Bush is claiming that Saddam Hussein is responsible for September 11th, can we? Because, technically, that's not what he said.
And if you're saying "I am certain of A," when you genuinely believe A but don't have adequate justification for certainty, is that a lie? Does it matter whether A is, in fact, true?
It depends how you say how you are certain. If you say, "if we are right, as I believe with every fibre of instinct and conviction I have that we are," this says to me that '*I* am certain of A', but it does not say to me 'A is not certain', and to me this is not a lie. A lie would be saying, 'A is certain' without proof (and in fact with proof that A is not certain).
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navrins) wrote,
July 18 2003, 09:05:45 UTC 8 years ago
"Before September the 11th, many in the world believed that Saddam Hussein could be contained"
Now, we can't complain that Bush is claiming that Saddam Hussein is responsible for September 11th, can we? Because, technically, that's not what he said.
July 18 2003, 09:08:48 UTC 8 years ago
July 18 2003, 09:14:03 UTC 8 years ago
Re:
And if you're saying "I am certain of A," when you genuinely believe A but don't have adequate justification for certainty, is that a lie? Does it matter whether A is, in fact, true?July 18 2003, 09:59:31 UTC 8 years ago
July 19 2003, 01:53:49 UTC 8 years ago