jimrandomh comments on The role of mathematical truths - Less Wrong

14 Post author: SilasBarta 24 April 2010 04:59PM

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Comment author: jimrandomh 25 April 2010 01:40:36PM *  2 points [-]

In general, I suspect it just isn't really solving problems but eliding distinctions and ignoring problems (just based on what I do know and the relative shortness of this compared to most other work in philosophy of math).

This is not a good heuristic, because in philosophy, works tend to be longest when they're confused, because most of the length tends to be spent repairing the damage caused by a mistake early on.

Comment author: Jack 25 April 2010 03:04:59PM 3 points [-]

So philosophy can get long because the author is running damage control. True. But it can also be short because the author is trying to answer 5-6 questions at once without engaging with the arguments of those who argue against his position. So length by itself- maybe a bad heuristic. But I'm leveraging this heuristic with enough background to make it work.