brazil84 comments on Amanda Knox: post mortem - Less Wrong

23 Post author: gwern 20 October 2011 04:10PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (483)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: brazil84 24 October 2011 09:17:18PM -2 points [-]

No, I don't particularly care to parse all that enough to agree to anything.

Suit yourself, but you will be missing the problem with loqi's statement.

No thanks.

Again, it's your choice. But I think that answering the question will help you to see why it's not necessarily a contradiction to (1) have one's livelihood depend on making good judgments; and (2) regularly make judgments which turn out to be wrong.

Comment author: thomblake 24 October 2011 09:34:07PM 0 points [-]

But I think that answering the question will help you to see why it's not necessarily a contradiction

I saw that. That's why I used the word 'tension' rather than the word 'contradiction'.

(Though looking for a reference for how the word 'tension' is used in the discipline of Philosophy, I can't seem to find anything online - it's used extensively on SEP, and there was a book written in 1936 on the word's proper use, but the sense used in Philosophy doesn't even make it into OED).

Comment author: brazil84 24 October 2011 09:55:57PM -1 points [-]

That's why I used the word 'tension' rather than the word 'contradiction'.

Well you also said "It seems the logical conclusion is that you've lost your job."

Comment author: thomblake 24 October 2011 09:57:50PM *  2 points [-]

Indeed, that's why I used the word "seems".

A good rule of thumb: If it looks like someone is making an obviously stupid mistake, you're probably misunderstanding them. It's a benefit of the principle of charity.

Comment author: brazil84 24 October 2011 10:14:09PM 0 points [-]

Indeed, that's why I used the word "seems".

I don't understand your point. Are you saying that you knew all along that there wasn't contradiction; that you were simply observing that there might appear to be a contradiction to some people?

Comment author: thomblake 24 October 2011 10:31:47PM 0 points [-]

Are you saying that you knew all along that there wasn't contradiction

Yes

Are you saying that ... you were simply observing that there might appear to be a contradiction to some people?

No, I was initially pointing to the tension between the two statements, and underscoring that by noting the seeming implication. You did not acknowledge the tension when those statements were juxtaposed by loqi, so I was trying to make it clear that they are in apparent conflict. Given "S will lose his job if he could not X" and "S often makes mistakes when trying to X", it does not deductively follow that "S lost his job", but it's the result to bet on. Learning in that context that S did not lose his job, one should perform a Bayesian update to decrease the probability of the premises.

Comment author: brazil84 24 October 2011 10:35:39PM -2 points [-]

Yes

No, I was initially pointing to the tension between the two statements

Ok, I see your point now. But using the same principle of charity, it's easy enough to read my statements so that they are not in contradiction (or tension) with eachother.