Zack_M_Davis comments on Light Arts - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Alicorn 06 November 2009 03:54AM

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Comment author: Zack_M_Davis 07 November 2009 06:23:59PM 2 points [-]

Yes, but given that we're not logically omniscient, it seems like it would be awfully useful to also have a weaker concept of coherence for discussing practical affairs. Otherwise I fear we wouldn't be allowed to talk about counterfactuals at all, for who among us is wise enough to prove that a purported possible world doesn't contain any hidden contradictions?

Comment author: Jack 07 November 2009 11:05:58PM 1 point [-]

'Descriptions' that claim to describe possible worlds can contain contradictions. But such descriptions don't describe anything, they're just words.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 09 November 2009 04:35:09AM 1 point [-]

'Descriptions' that claim to describe possible worlds can contain contradictions. But such descriptions don't describe anything, they're just words.

Maybe they don't describe anything, but that doesn't make them "just words." To be concrete, QED is, to the best of my ability to wrest information from physicists, inconsistent; yet it remains "the most accurate physical theory."

Comment author: Jack 09 November 2009 04:53:56AM *  1 point [-]

I don't know enough to deal with the counter example. How does QED contradict itself?