Seth_Goldin comments on Open Thread: January 2010 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 01 January 2010 05:02PM

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Comment author: Seth_Goldin 08 January 2010 03:28:45AM 0 points [-]

I am calling attention to reverting to "life experience" as recourse in an argument. If someone strays to that, it's clear that we're no longer considering evidence for whatever the argument is about. Referring back to "life experience" is far too nebulous to take as any evidence anything.

As for what constitutes legitimate evidence, even if anecdotes can correlate, anecdotes are not evidence!

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-anecdotal-evidence-can-undermine-scientific-results

Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 08 January 2010 11:51:42AM 2 points [-]

As for what constitutes legitimate evidence, even if anecdotes can correlate, anecdotes are not evidence!

Anecdotes are rational evidence, but not scientific evidence.

Comment author: Seth_Goldin 09 January 2010 04:11:05AM *  0 points [-]

For a debate involving complex religious, scientific, or political arguments, this won't suffice.