The Wizard's First Rule

[meogi]

I'd like to point out and discuss this philosophy from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Excellent series if you're interested in fantasy type novels.

"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."
—Chapter 36, p.397, U.S. hardcover edition​

There's a few points:
I believe "proper motivation" is referring to influence from another. Not sure though. Could be from experience.
Do people believe lies because they want to or because they are afraid of them?
Does anyone have an actual understanding of truth?
Are you confident you can discern the truth from a lie? Why?
Do people take advantage of this philosophy? Can it be good and bad?
Does this philosophy have any relativity in our global society? Should we even care?

Thoughts? I think footprints might like the 3rd sentence.

 

[Baydwin]

I agree that people are stupid.

I believe "proper motivation" is referring to influence from another. Not sure though. Could be from experience.

Could be anything. I imagine most people's proper motivation for believing in an afterlife is fear of death. Proper motivation for believing in God could be peer pressure like you say, or it could be any number of other reasons from having an experience thay interpret as divine, to converting for love and then growing to believe in their adopted religion over time.

Do people believe lies because they want to or because they are afraid of them?

I would say most people believe lies when they're easier to comprehend than the truth, or are more comfortable to accept than the truth.

Does anyone have an actual understanding of truth?

Truth is often subjective. I would say though it is possible to have understanding of those truths that can be independantly verified, such as mass generating gravitational attraction.

Are you confident you can discern the truth from a lie? Why?

Depends on the lie. I'm pretty skeptical, so I'm reasonably confident simply because I don't immediately accept presented facts as 100% accurate.

Do people take advantage of this philosophy? Can it be good and bad?

This philosophy being that people are stupid and can be influenced? Sure, they do it all the time, just look at the GOD channel.

Does this philosophy have any relativity in our global society? Should we even care?

It's relative to our society on a global scale when the lies people believe, such as climate change having nothing to do with human activity, threaten the future of the human race as a whole. Most of the time though it's just scammers taking advantage of the easily duped. Even so I think we should care, this behaviour, though it had its evolutionary advantages, has no place in polite society.

 

[Kerr]

There's a few points:
I believe "proper motivation" is referring to influence from another. Not sure though. Could be from experience.

Depends. Sometimes people, including myself unfortunately, can make themselves believe something.

Do people believe lies because they want to or because they are afraid of them?

Or because the person who is lying is a good lier and you don´t realize that they are actually lying. But sure, we can believe in a lie because we want to or because we fear it.

Does anyone have an actual understanding of truth?

Objectively everyone can be wrong. But that does not mean no one has an actual understanding of the truth. For example, an extreme example, I realize very well that if I smash your head open with a bat you will get hurt.

Are you confident you can discern the truth from a lie? Why?

Nope. Poor self-esteem can be a *****.

Do people take advantage of this philosophy? Can it be good and bad?
Does this philosophy have any relativity in our global society? Should we even care?

It all depends on how someone use it. If I am allowed to generalize a bit, some can use it to manipulate other people into doing what they want, others to not get tricked, and some to handle themselves. Not sure I would call it a philosophy, though, it is more like common sense as I see it. Something to keep in mind, but nothing I would build my perspective on life on.

Thoughts? I think footprints might like the 3rd sentence.

Personally I don´t like the part about people being stupid, but it is just because I don´t like to think of people as idiots .