about truth
have become so commonplace, we just do not notice them. We are oblivious to the almost superhuman intellectual effort required to wrestle these truths from obscurity and ignorance and force them into the light of knowledge.
Every child today knows and understands things we are all so familiar with, they seem obvious, but those same concepts, just a few hundred years ago, were inconceivable and unfathomable. The only reason they seem obvious to us is because they have been so conclusively proven that no one can imagine doubting them, or that they ever needed to be proved.
---Reginald Firehammer
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Footnotes
1. What she really had, of course, was a hypothesis, and it did not become a theory until it was proven to be correct. My hypothesis, on the other hand became a hypothesis proven incorrect.
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2. Here is a dictionary definition of the word proof:
(The American Heritage?Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000)
NOUN: 1. The evidence or argument that compels the mind to accept an assertion as true. 2a. The validation of a proposition by application of specified rules, as of induction or deduction, to assumptions, axioms, and sequentially derived conclusions. b. A statement or argument used in such a validation. 3a. Convincing or persuasive demonstration: was asked for proof of his identity; an employment history that was proof of her dependability. b. The state of being convinced or persuaded by consideration of evidence. 4. Determination of the quality of something by testing; trial: put one's beliefs to the proof. 5. Law The result or effect of evidence; the establishment or denial of a fact by evidence. 6. The alcoholic strength of a liquor, expressed by a number that is twice the percentage by volume of alcohol present. 7. Printing a. A trial sheet of printed material that is made to be checked and corrected. Also called proof sheet. b. A trial impression of a plate, stone, or block taken at any of various stages in engraving. 8a. A trial photographic print. b. Any of a limited number of newly minted coins or medals struck as specimens and for collectors from a new die on a polished planchet. 9. Archaic Proven impenetrability: “I was clothed in Armor of proof?(John Bunyan).
ADJECTIVE: 1. Fully or successfully resistant; impervious. Often used in combination: waterproof watches; a fireproof cellar door. 2. Of standard alcoholic strength. 3. Used in proving or making corrections.
VERB: Inflected forms: proofed, proof·ing, proofs
TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. Printing a. To make a trial impression of (printed or engraved matter). b. To proofread (copy). 2a. To activate (dormant dry yeast) by adding water. b. To work (dough) into proper lightness. 3. To treat so as to make resistant: proof a fabric against shrinkage.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. Printing To proofread. 2. To become properly light for cooking: The batter proofed overnight.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English prove, preve, from Anglo-Norman prove and from Old French prueve, both from Late Latin proba, from Latin probre, to prove.
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3. English physician William Harvey, April. 1, 1578 - June 3, 1657.
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4. One problem with the [next page]