THE INFLUENCE OF PHILOSOPHERS.

THE INFLUENCE OF PHILOSOPHERS. As I have acknowledged, in the breakdown of our family duties, my wife Mary Jane is responsible for doing the philosophy. She was much amused some years ago when I was reading Peter Gay’s THE ENLIGHTENMENT and exclaiming that so many of the ideas that I considered common sense or received wisdom had originated with the Enlightenment. I argued here that public policy could and should be debated in terms of the probabilities the speakers attached to their beliefs (e.g., “90% certain” is more helpful than a verbal formulation, such as “it’s a slam dunk.”). I have learned from Anna Wierzbicka that John Locke believed that we usually deal with probabilities and that speakers should express their “degree of assent” with a proposition. Once again I find that I have been shaped by a philosopher.