Comments on: Mormon Knowing

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Wed, 10 May 2017 15:35:38 +0000

Well I’d agree although perhaps the question of what counts as inquiry is not clear. I don’t think people need sophisticated inquiry. That is you don’t need to read up on cognitive science, criticisms or religion, or epistemology to say you know. I think you do need to do inquiry though and study. Not enough members do that.

By: ji

ji — Tue, 09 May 2017 21:52:12 +0000

Maybe my first comment was on track. I would like to believe that a regular member’s testimony of truth can be considered valid even if he or she hasn’t subjected it to critical inquiry.

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Tue, 09 May 2017 15:12:50 +0000

Well I’d say regular people can be critical. To my eyes the biggest difference is the quality of inquiry and the economy of picking useful places to inquire. But the point of this approach is to change the topic from static justification to a duty of inquiry.

By: ji

ji — Tue, 09 May 2017 10:26:10 +0000

the whole point is to explain both how regular people can know as well as how people more critical and sophisticated can know

Clark,

Do you make any distinction about the quality or efficacy of the knowledge of the two classes (regular people v. critical and sophisticated people)?

By: Clark Goble

Clark Goble — Tue, 09 May 2017 05:16:50 +0000

JI, the whole point is to explain both how regular people can know as well as how people more critical and sophisticated can know.

Q, the whole point to inquiry is to try to avoid groupthink. That is to question and take seriously questions. An implication of what I say is that if you’re only listening to people who agree with you then you’re not doing it right. However if you have doubts after looking at questions, the next step is to try and understand how your doubts are shaped by your expectations and whether the premises you’re bringing are fair.

Certainly I don’t doubt people can stay in an echo chamber. But to me that’s very bad. The problem is that if you fear doing any inquiry because it might raise doubts then you really don’t have much faith at all. That is your fear is demonstrative that you don’t really know.

By: ji

ji — Tue, 09 May 2017 01:29:39 +0000

Jonathan,

Thanks!

By: Q

Sun, 07 May 2017 21:55:36 +0000

Plus, the prose on Mormonism is so vast that people can remain in an echo chamber their entire lives.

By: Q

Sun, 07 May 2017 21:53:01 +0000

You discount just how overwhelmingly powerful confirmation bias and groupthink can be on the human mind.

By: Jonathan Green

Jonathan Green — Sun, 07 May 2017 21:04:40 +0000

JI, I think you’ve got this one backwards. I think Clark is arguing that a testimony shouldn’t be dismissed as mere emotion or discounted compared to other ways of establishing knowledge.

By: ji

ji — Sun, 07 May 2017 17:31:08 +0000

Clark,

I’m not understanding your postings. It seems to me that it is important to you to show that typical lay members don’t really know anything they claim to know, and that their testimonies and professions of faith must be discounted because they don’t really know anything they claim to know. Am I perceiving correctly?