/ Democracy / Imperialism / Desires, Goals, and Maslow's Hierarchy / Pragmatism /
/ Science, Rationalism, and Critical Thinking /

/ Legitimacy and Illegitimacy /


"Does a man (sic) have a right to his opinions? In a democracy, the answer "yes" is often taken for granted, and is defended with arguments about personal freedom. But the thoughtful answer is: "not necessarily." The square root of forty-nine is not a matter of opinion. To put it more strongly, no one has the right to believe that it is eight, since this is an opinion that cannot be defended."

Inklings : What Do You Think?
by Lewis Jones, from Skeptical Briefs June 1999



Everyone is entitled to his (sic) own opinion, but not to his own facts.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, quoted here



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"...most individuals believe in things that are untrue or unjustified or both: most people possess a lot of unreliable knowledge and, what's worse, they act on that knowledge! Other ways of knowing, and there are many in addition to science, are not reliable because their discovered knowledge is not justified. Science is a method that allows a person to possess, with the highest degree of certainty possible, reliable knowledge (justified true belief) about nature. The method used to justify scientific knowledge, and thus make it reliable, is called the scientific method."

from the superb
An Introduction to Science : Scientific Thinking and the Scientific Method
by Steven Schafersman
( or here, here, here, or here )



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My own opinions on this:

The legitimacy of a position or a policy stems from three main considerations:





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