"Рэймонд Смаллиан. Две философские сценки (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

DOCTOR: Oh, not at all; the machine used to be excellent before the
epistemologist's experimental carelessness put it out of whack.
FRANK: Well, surely when I knew it, it couldn't have been very
reliable.
DOCTOR: Not so, Frank, and this brings us to your problem. I know about
your entire conversation with the epistemologist--it was all tape-recorded.
FRANK: Then surely you realize the machine could not have been right
when it denied that I believed the book was red.
DOCTOR: Why not?
FRANK: Good God, do I have to go through all this nightmare again? I
can understand that a person can be wrong if he claims that a certain
physical object has a certain property, but have you ever known a single
case when a person can be mistaken when he claims to have or not have a
certain sensation?
DOCTOR: Why, certainly! I once knew a Christian Scientist who had a
raging toothache; he was frantically groaning and moaning all over the
place. When asked whether a dentist might not cure him, he replied that
there was nothing to be cured. Then he was asked, "But do you not feel
pain?" He replied, "No, I do not feel pain; nobody feels pain, there is no
such thing as pain, pain is only an illusion." So here is a case of a man
who claimed not to feel pain, yet everyone present knew perfectly well that
he did feel pain. I certainly don't believe he was lying, he was just simply
mistaken.
FRANK: Well, all right, in a case like that. But how can one be
mistaken if one asserts his belief about the color of a book?
DOCTOR: I can assure you that without access to any machine, if I asked
someone what color is this book, and he answered, "I believe it is red," I
would be very doubtful that he really believed it. It seems to me that if he
really believed it, he would answer, "It is red" and not "I believe it is
red" or "It seems red to me." The very timidity of his response would be
indicative of his doubts.
FRANK: But why on earth should I have doubted that it was red?
DOCTOR: You should know that better than I. Let us see now, have you
ever in the past had reason to doubt the accuracy of your sense perception?
FRANK: Why, yes. A few weeks before visiting the epistemologist, I
suffered from an eye disease, which did make me see colors falsely. But I
was cured before my visit.
DOCTOR: Oh, so no wonder you doubted it was red! True enough, your eyes
perceived the correct color of the book, but your earlier experience
lingered in your mind and made it impossible for you to really believe it
was red. So the machine was right!
FRANK: Well, all right, but then why did I doubt that I believed it was
true?
DOCTOR: Because you didn't believe it was true, and unconsciously you
were smart enough to realize the fact. Besides, when one starts doubting
one's own sense perceptions, the doubt spreads like an infection to higher
and higher levels of abstraction until finally the whole belief system
becomes one doubting mass of insecurity. I bet that if you went to the
epistemologist's office now, and if the machine were repaired, and you now
claimed that you believe the book is red, the machine would concur.