By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
What are the different logically possible answers to the question, "Do you have any reasons to assert or deny p?"
1. I have reasons to assert p.
2. I have reasons not to deny p.
3. I have no reasons to deny p.
4. I have no reasons to assert p.
5. I have reasons not to assert p.
6. I have reasons to deny p.
Relative to asserting p, 2 is stronger than 3, and 1 is stronger than 2. Similarly, relative to denying p, 5 is stronger than 4, and 6 is stronger than 5.
By "stronger than" I mean "requires more or better reasons than." Thus to assert p requires having more or better reasons than not to deny p, which itself requires having more or better reasons than having no reasons to deny p. And so, too, with denying p, which requires having more or better reasons than not to assert p, which itself requires having more or better reasons than having no reasons to assert p.
3 December 2000; rev. 24 June 2009
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