EUGIM wrote:* Even Mr. Dummett in " A wicked pack of cards " said :
- " Hidden meanings could have have been concealed within the Tarot trumps,even if those meanings were quiet irrelevant to any uses made of the cards in early times. "
Dummett (and Decker and Depaulis have to be included here, although it sounds like Dummett) is simply making a banal observation.
If an idea is not patently absurd, or explicitly contradicted by evidence, then it is
possible.
The idea of a hidden meaning in the trumps becomes a
plausible hypothesis because of the well-known penchant for riddles, puzzles, anagrams, enigmas, allegories etc. in medieval and renaissance art.
But although the idea is certainly possible and even plausible, it is nowhere near
probable because many intelligent, ingenious and industrious people have looked for a such a hidden meaning for over 200 years, and no one has shown the slightest evidence, nor come close to arguing convincingly, that the trumps have one.
Therefore, the hypothesis of a hidden meaning (as opposed to an evident one) remains nothing more than a not-yet-absolutely-disproven idea. Year after year people try to
argue for one (since no proof can be offered), and so it seems that the plausibility of the hypothesis has grown very remote. It has grown so remote that most of us who seriously try to explain the sequence of images have given up on it altogether, and consider it essentially disproven as a working hypothesis. There is no use wasting time on it, in other words.
That won't stop most people who will continue to believe it anyway, but all of the real discoveries and good ideas come from people who have given up on the idea of an esoteric meaning and seek understanding in the exoteric one.
Remember this sequence though -
possible (= not absurd (impossible) or contradicted);
plausible (= more likely than merely possible, given other circumstances);
probable (=the best or one of the best solutions given the evidence);
certain (proven absolutely or beyond reasonable doubt).
If you can't argue from a position of
certainty or proof, try to argue from a position of
probability.