NOTES 39312 Reflect on All our beliefs are culturally determined (and so not valid beyond our
culture) which, if true, is true of all beliefs in all cultures but held in his, and so false.
Many seem to believe that One ought to believe nothing but what science teaches,
but that claim is not something that science teaches, so they are inconsistent in
believing it. Only what passes the Verification Principle of the Logical Positivists is
meaningful did not pass the test of the Verification Principle. It is true that No view
that commits intellectual suicide can be known to be true.
13 Some would add here that these beliefs regarding the data and the theory and potential
theories not involve culpable ignorance; this seems correct.
14 It may be that even if one’s evidence is that torture for pleasure is now obligatory,
perhaps it would be morally wrong to accept that belief. It may be that one’s beliefs
are typically not under one’s control and that one can bring them under such control
only by a rational examination of their grounds. It may be that some beliefs, even
when one tends to believe them false, can only be eradicated by engaging in certain
practices. An ethic of belief would have to weave these considerations, along with
many others, into an overall coherent theory offered with reasons for thinking the
theory true. I offer no such thing here.