SilasBarta comments on Rationality Quotes: May 2011 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: CronoDAS 02 May 2011 02:33AM

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Comment author: SilasBarta 04 May 2011 04:44:07PM 2 points [-]

Huh? Isn't it worse to say that a statement is "not even wrong" -- that's it's content-free and doesn't specify a probability distribution you should move toward?

Comment author: shokwave 05 May 2011 04:59:10AM 3 points [-]

If a statement is false - that presupposes it having content of some sort, albeit wrong content. There are plenty of worse things that can be said about statements (not even wrong, for example) but these can't be said of statements that are true or false; they can only be said of statements that have no content. So the hierarchy goes: True > False > Not Even Wrong, and false statements are better than not even wrong ones.

Comment author: wedrifid 05 May 2011 04:37:14AM 2 points [-]

Isn't it worse to say that a statement is "not even wrong

I was thinking of making that rebuttal myself - but realised I had been preemptively countered. Because the statement is wrong and so already ahead of those statements that qualify for the even worse charge.