Harold Carr

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Sun, 07 Mar 2004

Umberto Eco's The Force of the False

I'm reading the first essay in Umberto Eco's Serendipities - Language and Lunacy. He notes that we still speak Ptolemaically (e.g., the sun "rises" and "sets") and that we need conspiracy theories. Citing Karl Popper he says, "the social theory of conspiracy is a consequence of the end of God as a reference point and of the consequent question, Who is there in his place? This place is now occupied by various men and powerful sinister groups that can be blamed for having organized the Great Depression and all the evils we suffer. Plots and conspiracies are used to explain the failure of our own actions."

He continues, "Tales, true of false, are always persuasive. Narratives explain something that was otherwise hard to understand. They seem more plausible than everyday or historical reality, which is far more complex and less credible.

"There exists a process of verification that is based on slow, collective, public performance by what Charles Sanders Peirce call `the Community.'

"Recognizing that our history has been inspired by many tales we now recognize as false should make us alert, ready to call constantly into question the very tales we believe true. The cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared to rewrite the encyclopedia."

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Harold Carr

Harold Carr