writes on his blog.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cFacts are independently testable and verifiable, with truth independent of one\u2019s own opinions or beliefs. It is raining at this place and this time is a testable statement, provably true or false. An opinion is not a fact. \u201cI think it is raining\u201d is an opinion; it may or may not be accurate. Fact-based persuasion is convincing someone else it is raining using clear, verifiable evidence that it is, in fact, raining; demagoguery is not. Social consensus is a widely held perspective, best supported by history and evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, and I\u2019m not making this up: As I\u2019m planning to head out I often ask a Google home device that sits on my dining table abutting a window, \u201cOK Google: Is it raining?\u201d She tells me it is. But when I look out, through the window I don\u2019t see raindrops. I ask again. Google again tells me it\u2019s raining but again I see no raindrops. I stand up. The road is wet. But an earlier shower could have made it wet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I go outside, I will feel raindrops on my face \u2013 or not. But do they establish the \u201cfact\u201d of rain? What privileges tactile sensation over visual observation? And what is the “fact” of rain anyhow?\u00a0 There is always some moisture in the air. It\u2019s a linguistic and thereby social convention to call moisture that takes the form of distinct droplets subject to the laws of gravity that we can both feel and see \u201crain.\u201d Fog which we can see but not feel isn’t rain. But what if we can just feel the drops but can\u2019t see them?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Social Agreement v. objective facts\/information Professor Reed writes on his blog. \u201cFacts are independently testable and verifiable, with truth independent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-productive-knowledge","category-ruminations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bhide.net\/wordpress_files\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}