RichardKennaway comments on You're Entitled to Arguments, But Not (That Particular) Proof - Less Wrong

57 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 February 2010 07:58AM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 15 February 2010 04:19:17PM 1 point [-]

You go from "Kahneman (1982) suggests that X", to "Kahneman has shown that X", to "It is well established that X", to "Since X", and finally you don't even mention X any longer, it has merged into background knowledge.

Unfortunately, this process can occur even in the absence of any attempt to obtain evidence for X. Sometimes just by accident.