"Ruchlis, Hyman - True" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ruchlis Hyman)

problem. If someone insisted he was Napoleon, or that he was
made of green cheese, we would immediately send him off to
see a psychiatrist. He would need immediate help.
We must be able to know the difference between what is
true, and what is false. But how do we know that what we
think is a fact is really so?

FACTS MUST BE BASED ON OBSERVATIONS

Some simple facts are easily observed and checked by others.
For example, if someone tells you that a rubber ball costs one
dollar at a local store, it is easy to check that fact by going
there and seeing it on a price tag, or hearing the salesperson
say, "It costs a dollar."
Or, if someone tells you that a certain person lives at 65
Cloudburst Street and the phone number is 123-4567, it is not
hard to check these facts. You could look in the telephone book,
or hear the person talk on the telephone when you call. You
might check the address by actually going there to see the person.
Anyone can verify such facts by means of observations--
by using our senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
Modern business could not exist without such facts as prices,
catalog numbers, and descriptions for products; names, ad-
dresses, and telephone numbers of customers and suppliers; bills,
checks, profits, and money in the bank. There are many billions
of such facts, necessary to maintain our modern society.


Fiction or Fact? 13

SOME FACTS ARE HARD TO DISCOVER

However, many kinds of facts, or what we think are facts, are
difficult to discover. For example, someone may get a severe
pain that he thinks is in his stomach and take some medicine
for indigestion. But perhaps what he thinks is a "fact" about
the pain "in his stomach" may not be so at all. If the cause
of the pain is a heart ailment, or a diseased gall bladder, taking
the wrong medicine, or waiting too long to see a doctor, could
be fatal.
The pain itself is an observation because it is something
that we know exists. We actually feel it. But mistakes are easily
made when we try to figure out what the observation means.
We may reason incorrectly and "jump to a conclusion" that
is wrong. For example, someone may feel a pain in the leg
and think there is something wrong where the pain is located.
The pain may actually be caused by pressure on a nerve in
the lower back. In that case, a treatment for the leg is useless,
and perhaps harmful.
For such health problems it is best to see doctors who are