I often find myself to be impatient, often frustrated, when people claim

I often find myself to be impatient, often frustrated, when people claim

I often find myself to be impatient, often frustrated, when people claim something to be 'obvious', and never more than when I think that they are using it incorrectly. An example of this might be "obviously, Hitler was an evil man", or "obviously, it's better to be poor and happy than rich and sad" - this is because I wish justification for their claim, and do not want to simply accept it (in these cases because of popular opinion). I realise that both of these examples are ethical, but is there anything that is understood by philosophers to be obvious (and by obvious I mean without need of qualification or justification)?

Read another response by Peter Lipton, Alexander George, Luciano Floridi
Read another response about Knowledge
Print