But let us say that my blind peers bring me incredibly convincing evidence for the idea that there is no other side of the canyon.
Your blind peers can’t bring you convincing evidence that there’s no other side to the canyon unless there actually is no other side to the canyon. It’s like asking “what if homeopaths provided you with incredibly convincing evidence that homeopathy worked, would you still cling to what science says?” (The answer is that if it was possible to produce incredibly convincing evidence for homeopathy, we would be in a very different world than we are now, and science would be saying different things.)
Your blind peers can’t bring you convincing evidence that there’s no other side to the canyon unless there actually is no other side to the canyon.
On the contrary, it is quite possible to come up with some very convincing arguments for something that is false. There are many ways to do this, either by means of flawed argument, logical fallacy, carefully selecting only the evidence that supports a given theory, and so on. If I am sufficiently cautious in examining the arguments, I may identify the flaws and expose them—but it is also possible that I may fail to notice the flaws, because I am not perfect.
It’s like asking “what if homeopaths provided you with incredibly convincing evidence that homeopathy worked, would you still cling to what science says?”
A homeopath can provide a convincing argument by providing a very long list of people who were ill, took a homeopathic remedy, and then recovered; and accompanying it with a very long list of people who were ill, took no homeopathic remedy, and got worse.
Anyone who notices the cherry-picking of evidence will see the flaw in that argument, but it will nonetheless convince many people.
I don’t consider “evidence which would convince at least some people” to be “incredibly convincing evidence”. Even poorly convincing evidence will convince someone—poorly convincing evidence isn’t the same as nonconvincing evidence.
Ah, I think we have the point of disconnect here. I consider “incredibly convincing evidence” to be any evidence which would convince me. I am aware that this includes some flawed evidence that would convince me of incorrect things, but I can’t provide a good example, because if I knew how it was flawed then it would not convince me (and if it has convinced me, then I don’t know that it is flawed). Thus, yes, my examples were only vaguely convincing, in order to make the flaws clearer.
Your blind peers can’t bring you convincing evidence that there’s no other side to the canyon unless there actually is no other side to the canyon. It’s like asking “what if homeopaths provided you with incredibly convincing evidence that homeopathy worked, would you still cling to what science says?” (The answer is that if it was possible to produce incredibly convincing evidence for homeopathy, we would be in a very different world than we are now, and science would be saying different things.)
On the contrary, it is quite possible to come up with some very convincing arguments for something that is false. There are many ways to do this, either by means of flawed argument, logical fallacy, carefully selecting only the evidence that supports a given theory, and so on. If I am sufficiently cautious in examining the arguments, I may identify the flaws and expose them—but it is also possible that I may fail to notice the flaws, because I am not perfect.
A homeopath can provide a convincing argument by providing a very long list of people who were ill, took a homeopathic remedy, and then recovered; and accompanying it with a very long list of people who were ill, took no homeopathic remedy, and got worse.
Anyone who notices the cherry-picking of evidence will see the flaw in that argument, but it will nonetheless convince many people.
I don’t consider “evidence which would convince at least some people” to be “incredibly convincing evidence”. Even poorly convincing evidence will convince someone—poorly convincing evidence isn’t the same as nonconvincing evidence.
Ah, I think we have the point of disconnect here. I consider “incredibly convincing evidence” to be any evidence which would convince me. I am aware that this includes some flawed evidence that would convince me of incorrect things, but I can’t provide a good example, because if I knew how it was flawed then it would not convince me (and if it has convinced me, then I don’t know that it is flawed). Thus, yes, my examples were only vaguely convincing, in order to make the flaws clearer.