lukeprog comments on Rationality quotes January 2012 - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Thomas 01 January 2012 10:28AM

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

Comments (462)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: lukeprog 09 January 2012 08:42:23PM 2 points [-]

Nominal essences are all the essences that science needs, and some are better than others, because they capture more regularity in nature.

Dan Dennett

To explain: a "nominal essence" is just an abstract idea that humans have decided to use to pick out a particular type of thing. This is contrasted with a more Aristotelean view of essence.

Comment author: TimS 09 January 2012 09:20:16PM 0 points [-]

Because I'm curious:

Is Dennett's position intended to be a response to the theory of scientific incommesurability, or some other aspect of philosophy of science?

Comment author: lukeprog 09 January 2012 10:15:16PM *  0 points [-]

His quote is about conceptual analysis and intuition's role in philosophy in general, and about where to draw the boundary.