http://tinybuddha.com/blog/this-too-shall-pass-and-other-reminders
This Too Shall Pass and Other Reminders
by J.C. Lundberg
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Bertrand Russell was a Twentieth Century philosopher in the fields of philosophy of language and metaphysics. When he would debate people, some of them would argue “You cannot disprove such and such a supposition so you must admit that it is possible that I’m right.”
Russell would agree that of course it was possible that they were right, but that does not mean their idea is worthy of respect.
His counterargument was by way of a thought experiment. “Imagine,” he would say, “that I posit that orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars is a small ceramic teapot. Imagine further that I posit that the teapot is small enough and far enough away and has a low enough albedo and therefore our instruments cannot detect it. You would then have to agree that you cannot disprove my teapot.”
Even though we cannot disprove Russell’s teapot it’s not bloody likely that to be out there. “Not bloody likely” are my words, not Professor Russell’s.
The existence of that teapot is not equiprobable, it is not equally likely to be true as to be false.
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“Bertrand Russell’s teapot” (BRT) is going into my shorthands!
Not sure if it’s just for use with wacky ideas. Or maybe with wacky people? Or maybe unprovable <synonym for excrement>? Or people who keep presenting non-facts?
I think I’ll award BRTs to folks that annoy me.
Have to think about the criteria, but I have someone in mind. :-)
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Reinke Faces Life 