Foxfyre wrote:You disagree Setanta?
Most assuredly.
Quote:Enlighten us then oh wise one.
This feeble attempt at snide humor is all the more ironic given your penchant for statements from authority. Often those statments are ludicrous in character:
Quote:Perhaps most published opinions posted here are incredibly biased, Cav, . . .
Brava, you've actually used a qualifier--"perhaps." This is so uncommon an event in your posts, that i thought it appropriate to salute such a signal acheivement on your part.
Quote: . . . but conviction requires bias.
This is a statement from authority, for which you provide no substantiation. Although conviction may lead to bias, and certainly seems to have done so in your case, it is not axiomatice that one who becomes convinced of something will be biased. In fact, having a bias as a result of conviction would mitigate against changing one's opinion because of the unlikelilhood of giving credence to that which contradicts one's conviction.
Quote:A person can be biased in favor of a particular viewpoint that is based on both empirical and objective evidence, reason, and logic.
In fact, those who give their time to philosophical considerations and scientific research would flatly deny that such a statement is true. The entire purpose of empirical research and the objective consideration of evidence
is to eliminate bias.
Quote:Bias does not automatically equate with dishonesty or disingenuousness (is that a word?)
In fact, in refutation of this absurd contention, as well as the previous one, i offer the following definition from
Princeton University: "a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation."
Quote:Bias is a problem only when it comes from bigotry and/or prejudice and/or intentionally omits valid information that would show an opinion to be flawed.
Refer once again to the Princeton University web site. That definition of bias specifically means the intentional omission of valid information that would show an opinion to be flawed.
I don't purport to be a fount of wisdom--that would serve, however, to very accurately define what you do from one post to the next, almost constantly. Therefore, given such a marked preference for statements from authority on your part, and the speed with which you respond to people by making such statements from authority, and finally, given that said statements are made without authority and are frequently very flawed statements--i thought it appropriate to inquire whether or not you make this up as you go along.