Twitter / MichaelEMann: .@simondonner "Skepticism is ...
.@simondonner "Skepticism is a lazy man's consolation, since it showed the ignorant to be as wise as the reputed men of learning"#HSCW (2/2)
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The Mann-hole missed the best quotes from Bertrand Russell-
"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd."
"Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing."
"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd."
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."
And the climateer's motto-
"All movements go too far."
Best of all, he quotes Bertrand Russell, sooo out of context, it is not even wrong.
Bertrand was commenting on this:
"Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life." from one of Plato's students Protagoras. Protagoras was pursuing an Agnostic philosophy in which he did not place much weight the the Pantheon of Greek gods.
Bertrand amused himself with how Aristotle would view this with:
"Scepticism was a lazy man’s consolation, since it showed the ignorant to be as wise as the reputed men of learning. To the men who, by temperament, required a gospel, it might seem unsatisfying, but like every doctrine of the Hellenistic perios it recommended itself as an antidote to worry. Why trouble about the future? It is wholly uncertain. You may as well enjoy the present; “what’s to come is still unsure”. For these reasons, Scepticism enjoyed a considerable success."
I guess Mann used that microscopic quote in his book to compensate for his microscopic...
re: "skepticism is a lazy man's consolation"
One of the first things I noticed when I started reading both sides was how hard-working the skeptics were.
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