In Defense of Dogmatism

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2558 ^ | William M. Briggs

[mattstat]

Now, it is true, and trivial, that to assert what is false is foolish, and to assert what is false vociferously is idiotic. But in order to claim a man is dogmatically asserting a falsehood, we must have knowledge that what he is saying is false. That is, we must ourselves assert a truth: that the man’s belief is false. This is a long-winded way of saying that we must be dogmatic—in the sense of declaring a view with certainty—in cursing dogmatism.

This must always have been obvious. Consider that the Bartletts and Hackings of the world would dogmatically disallow dogmatism, which is, naturally, an impossible position. There are truths and to assert them dogmatically cannot be a philosophical shortcoming.

[goodusername]

“To call a man a dogmatist is to slur him. It is to accuse him of unthinking inflexibility. It is to intimate, as Bartlett and Hacking do, that the dogmatist thinks all others idiots for not believing as he does. To fling this word is to accuse a man of being wrong.
Nobody calls a man a dogmatist who agrees wholly with that man. It is only those who we believe swim in error that we curse”

—Not true. It’s not unusual for someone to reprimand someone else for being dogmatic - even when they are on the same side on an issue. The charge of dogmatism isn’t an accusation of ‘being wrong’, it’s an accusation of forgetting that one is fallible.

“Now, it is true, and trivial, that to assert what is false is foolish, and to assert what is false vociferously is idiotic.”

—I would say that that is neither trivial nor true. Maxwell was a vociferous proponent of the ‘aether’, but I’ve never heard anyone accuse him of being foolish, let alone an idiot, for doing so. He was merely doing the best he could with what he had; and had the Michelson/Morley experiment been done in his lifetime, I believe he would have dumped the idea. Newton was also wrong about a whole host of things but, again, haven’t seen him be accused of foolishness or idiocy.

“But in order to claim a man is dogmatically asserting a falsehood, we must have knowledge that what he is saying is false. That is, we must ourselves assert a truth: that the man’s belief is false. This is a long-winded way of saying that we must be dogmatic—in the sense of declaring a view with certainty—in cursing dogmatism.”

—This is again conflating the charge of dogmatism, with the charge of ‘being wrong’. If someone claimed that we can be “100% certain that the sun will rise tomorrow”, I would demur, but I hardly have knowledge to the contrary.