[ExI] humility

[William Flynn Wallace]

I think the word 'humble' fits in perfectly with the scientific attitude.
We are skeptical of any result from scientific study.  We nearly always
want more data,esp. if the result is an unusual one. We are always open to
alternative interpretations.  And so on.  All of us know these principles.
Don't they amount to humility?

I am not humble in the sense of "Aw, shucks, ma'am."  Never taking credit,
and all that.  But I am humble in the way Bill H puts it:  I could be wrong
about my political views or any other view I have.  So I think Bill H is
humble in the scientific sense.

bill w


On Sun, Oct 18, 2020 at 9:26 AM Bill Hibbard via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> > I really like the Paradox of Humility.
>
> The word "humility" can be used in different ways.
> For example, on 19 Apr 2020 on this list I wrote:
>
> > Like other old folks I look back on my life and regret mistakes
> > I made, some of them real whoppers. But it occurs to me that if
> > I had avoided those mistakes, my life may not have turned out any
> > better.
> >
> > This gives me some humility about my social/political opinions.
>
> This doesn't mean that I am humble. I am not. Here the word
> "humility" just means that my life experience warns me that
> my social/political opinions may be wrong and that I should
> not regard people who disagree with me as evil. I think this
> is a nonparadoxical use of the word.
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