Litany of Tarski

If the box contains a diamond,
I desire to believe that the box contains a diamond;
If the box does not contain a diamond,
I desire to believe that the box does not contain a diamond;
Let me not become attached to beliefs I may not want.

—Eliezer Yudkowsky, The Meditation on Curiousity

The Litany of Tarski can be stated about any fact. Here's another example:

If the sky is blue

I desire to believe "the sky is blue"

If the sky is not blue

I desire to believe "the sky is not blue".

See also

• Truth
• Litany of Gendlin
• Self-deception

Blog posts

Posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky:

• The Meditation on Curiousity
• Why truth? and... - You have an instrumental motive to care about the truth of your beliefs about anything you care about.
• Belief in Self-Deception - Deceiving yourself is harder than it seems. What looks like a successively adopted false belief may actually be just a belief in false belief.