Quote:
Originally Posted by G1911
I don't want to hijack to far away from Munson; but I love pedantry.
That person or persons X believed Y has no actual impact on X being true or false. Many people believe many things, true and false. This is a very popular belief, but I don't see how belief of X has anything to do with X is true.
If I say "90% of people believe the sky is blue, this is evidence the sky is blue" I am incorrect. The sky does, in fact, appear blue but the reason this is so is not because 90% of people in a survey said this. A thing can be and sometimes is true or false independent of popular or expert belief. It's not real evidence; it captures conception but not truth or validity of that conception.
Whether one is deserving or not deserving is distinct and independent from what happened; which is where this information is useful and valid and good data. In a history of the Hall, it's the important thing. In a debate of "is X meritorious", it's not.
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But you're misstating the issue, in my opinion. The relevant question here is do the opinions of experts tasked with determining who should be in the Hall matter at all to the discussion? They aren't random people chosen out of the phone book, if they were, I would agree with you. I am only saying some weight should be given, they should not be completely disregarded. PS the blue sky is a bad example as it concerns a matter of fact, not opinion or belief, so opinions/beliefs there truly are meaningless.