Quote:
On 2002-04-30 16:50, Wiley wrote:
I think the "Shakespeare hoax" is in a completely different class than the "moon landing hoax". Compared to Shakespeare's contemporaries, we know very little about him. (The movie "Shakespeare in Love" could be accurate, we don't know.) Since so little is known about him, there is "reasonable" room to speculate. These speculations must withstand the rigors of scholarship, of course.
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Very true, and a telling point...
I brought the subject up mostly as a psychological examination of the phenomenon of "hoax belief." I think the thing that startled me the most was that I had thought I would be immune, but I wasn't. I was persuaded by what appeared to be pure reason. (Actually, I'm still kinda on the Oxfordian side of the trenches, but I've got a LOT more reading to do...)
I think of skepticism, not as a closed door, but as a "screen door." Real information gets through it...but it keeps the flies and mice out...
Silas