Dear Neighbor,

What do I know? I know that I have the best possible breed of dog in my goldendoodle, Reuben.

Wait a minute, you say. What about my golden retriever, or my corgi, or my cocker spaniel…they are wonderful breeds!

Well, OK, I say. But they shed, bark, run away and cause allergies. My Reuben does none of these so this must be the best breed. What does it mean to “know” something? How is it different from, I “believe” something?

What does it take to move a belief to knowing? It takes some investigation. There are various ways to investigate. I could look around my neighborhood and ask friends what the best breed is. I could go to a goldendoodle blog and ask for opinions. I could look to see which dogs are the most expensive. I think you would agree that I couldn’t conclude from any of the queries what the best dog breed is. I guess I need to apply some rules for my investigation.

What if I define “best breed” as the most popular? Now I have some help in determining this. Other people have been investigating this and reached a conclusion. Now the question is why should we believe these results? We want to be convinced that they are not biased by who or how they ask the questions. In finding my answer, I looked at various websites that reported the most popular breeds in 2024 in the U.S., thus defining the population we are looking at. All the sites agreed on the top 20 breeds, so I think I now know what they are. (answer in the P.S.)

How often we hear beliefs expressed as knowledge. Climate change? I know climate change is a hoax is a different statement from I believe climate change is a hoax. The latter invites an investigation of what can be concluded from the reports of experts in the field who have resources for exploring and documenting the phenomena; resources that most of us don’t have.

The economy? “I know the economy is worse than it was 4 years ago.” Really? What do economists report based on detailed analysis that we may not understand, but that should not be the same as not believing it.

There are many ideas that we are exposed to that some of us will support and others reject. One of the values of a democracy is that we can express our opinions, but we should recognize that an opinion is not a fact, even if everyone we know agrees with us. Keeping an open mind and being willing to look at evidence that doesn’t support our opinion is also a democratic value.

P.S. Sorry to say goldendoodle doesn’t even make the list (don’t tell Reuben). French bulldog is No. 1.

 

“Dear Neighbor” authors are united in a belief that civility and passion can coexist. We believe curiosity and conversation make us a better community.