Truth and the Majority View
The majority view occurs in a wide range of judgments from a few friends arguing over a football game to worldwide opinion of global ecology. The purpose of this essay is to explore the formation of a majority view and test the validity of its judgment using the reality principle.
The reality principle
Wittgenstein's private language argument attacks the idea of the private object. Essentially, his claim is that if I cannot be wrong about 'the colour blue looks to me' then I cannot be right either. His reasoning is that no one else can see what is in my mind, therefore, there can be no objective corroboration of that which is my subjective judgment. The prime target for the reality principle is also the private object. In Dr G. Klempner's Pathways to Philosophy — Metaphysics 2/23 the reality principle is used as a tool to test whether a judgment is genuine or not. Our judgments are statements about how things seem to be to us, but we must accept the possibility that our judgments may be false. However, my beliefs about the world can be false only if there are possible circumstances that would lead me to override my conviction that I am right. The point of using the reality principle is that if we do not accept the possibility of our own judgment being wrong then there can be no distinction between truth and falseness.
By applying the reality principle to a majority view definition of truth we can say that it must be possible for the majority view to be false. If this definition of truth produces judgments that cannot be wrong, then they cannot be right either. However, the judgments of the majority can be false only if there are possible circumstances that would lead them to override their conviction that they were right.
Forms of majority view
The term majority is imprecise and simply means the major part of a population. The part may be anything between fifty and one hundred per cent, and the population may be any number. We need to consider the way a majority is formed before we can value the majority view as a genuine judgment.
(i) A majority view may form where individuals do not know what judgments are being made by others. Suppose a canvasser stops passers-by at random and asks each one 'How many times did Bjorn Borg win the Wimbledon men's single's tennis championship?
In the book, “How Democratic Is the American Constitution”, Robert A. Dahl takes us deeper into the complexities of demonstration of American majority rule government were surrounded. An intriguing part of this book is the examination with different popular governments as far and wide as possible. His tables and graphs in the book are helpful for the situation. The book also given an idea of majority rules system in the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
By its use of majority rule, America’s democracy models a collectivist society. Take elections for an example. Although, Americans vote individually, the decision ultimately is based on the country as a whole. The use of majority rule relates to the representation of the ideas of the masses rather than the ideas of the individuals. As expected, there is always a number of people who disagree with the majority's opinions. Disagreement is frowned upon, which Andrew P. Naplitano highlights in his book, It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case for Personal Freedom. Due to America's use of the majority rule, this title often holds true.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Prentice Hall Literature Georgia: The American Experience. Upper Sadlle River: Pearson, 2011. 292-310. Print.
In recent years, a major controversy in the NCAA has been whether or not student athletes in college should be paid for playing sports. There are different viewpoints from different people stating if they should or not. Many people believe that they are already being rewarded enough with their education being paid, but even with the school’s help with their tuition and school fees, many have trouble paying personal expenses. Even though some people believe they shouldn’t be compensated for their hard work and dedication, it is the right thing to do, due to their lack of time occupied by sports and schoolwork. Many famous athletes in college such as Johnny Manziel and Tim Tebow bring in millions of dollars into their universities due to publicity and even though they are breaking their backs they don’t receive a single dime for their hard work. The college coaches also get a really high salary, just for coaching the players. They also receive many contracts that include shoe contracts, TV and radio contracts, and many perks along the way. When the coaches get their teams to the playoffs or win major games, they might receive big bonuses. It doesn’t make sense that the athletes are the ones that are doing all the work to get the far yet they don’t see any form of compensation. Many executives from the NCAA and the universities also get millions of dollars from big sporting events, and they do nothing to earn it. The athletes are the ones taking stuff out of their time and working hard to not get paid.
Categorization and social projection are important ways that people can more successfully navigate their social environment. People need to know that there are others in their in-group that share the same attitudes and behaviors as they do. If people are unable to determine how many people in their environment share their attitudes and behaviors, it would be more difficult to engage in social situations without offending or contradicting others. For this reason, false consensus is an interesting offshoot of this important idea. The false consensus effect refers to the fact that people have a tendency to over-estimate the proportion of the population that shares an attitude or behavior with him or her.
8.First proposed by Seymour Martin Lipset (1959), “Some Social Pre-requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy,” American Political Science Review 53.1: 69-105
On the other hand, the authors propose that the other way of assessing information is similar to the bandwagon approach we learn in high school. Any time I think of the bandwagon concept I hear my mother asking “if your friends jumped off a bridge would you jump too?” I thi...
“The Haunted Palace” is one of Edgar Allen Poe’s mysterious and phantasmagoric poems. Written in the same year as “The Devil in the Belfry,” and included in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Haunted Palace” is another tale of innocence and happiness now corroded with sorrow and madness. It is fairly easy to say that “The Haunted Palace” is a metaphor for Poe’s own ghostly troubled mind, more than it is about a decaying palace. For in 1839, it was found in a book that the main character in “The Fall of the House of Usher” comes across. In the context of its appearance in “Usher,” it is startlingly clear that this is no fable of earthly decay, but one of mental and spiritual ruin.
Daniel J. Boorstin believes that dissent and disagreement are far different from each other. He classifies those who dissent as part of the minority and those who have a disagreement part of the majority. I believe that dissent is just a degree of disagreement, and therefore the classification of minority and majority is all dependent on who, what, when and where we are talking about.
The topic of college athletics has always been very prominent in the news. Most recently, members of the Northwestern University football team have joined together to start the first college sports union (Novy-Williams & Soshnick, 2014). Their goal is to obtain control over their collegiate athletic career, including what they believe are long overdue financial benefits. This case has reopened the longstanding debate concerning whether or not college athletes should be paid.
Another genocide that still happens today is the Darfur Genocide, beginning in 2003, and happening today. Darfur, a region located in Western Sudan is subject to a two-fold problem: one being after the civil war between North and South Sudan, Darfur was obliterated, leaving the nomadic people of Darfur resourceless and searching for help. The second problem Darfur has is there is a lot of oil in Darfur, making the region very appealing to the Sudanese government. Once the war between the North and the South culminated, the government neglected to assist Darfur in their losses as a result of the destruction. This made the Darfur people very irate, and feeling the need to do something about it. Beginning in 2003, two rebellious groups “the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)”
It is especially true for subjects who come from Indiana. The predicted probabilities also showcase that the local frame affects the perceptions of the public on the severity of the problem. Furthermore, there was no evidence of the benefits frame changing the behavioral intentions of the subjects. The study proves that the public may see the issue of climate change as serious or not serious depending on the frame used. The public understands the local frame making them appreciate the severity of the impacts of climate change. Also, the use of local frame helps to bring together the Republicans and Democrats on the issue of climate change. In particular, it increases the probability of the Republicans to agree with the behavioral intentions making them indistinguishable to Democrats.
“The Fall of the House of Usher,” written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839, is regarded
The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe, provides the readers with a gothic and frightening atmosphere. The short story takes place in the House of Usher, the owner, Roderick Usher begins to have strange intentions once his sister, Madeline, passed. Roderick wishes to be in complete isolation and also begins to conduct himself as paranoid. The Narrator of the story is nameless and also simply wants to assist Roderick in his time of need and sorrow. The Narrator’s high use of descriptions and the characters in general manifest an uncanny nature. Poe displays a strong tone eeriness in his short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, as illustrated when
The Fall of the House of Usher by Roderick Usher is a horror novel that engages and thrills the reader throughout the whole story. The story is told through a narrator. Poe however did not use the typical faceless, nameless narrator that readers are accustomed too. In a magnificent way of writing Poe made his narrator into a critical character of the story.