J_Taylor comments on Rationality Quotes May 2012 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 01 May 2012 11:37PM

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Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 01 May 2012 07:58:52AM *  10 points [-]

Scientific Realism is the only philosophy that doesn't make the success of science a miracle.

-Hilary Putnam

Comment author: J_Taylor 01 May 2012 09:54:17PM 1 point [-]

Putnam of all people really should have known better than to use the word 'miracle'.

Comment author: hairyfigment 03 May 2012 07:56:27AM -1 points [-]

How do you figure??

Comment author: J_Taylor 03 May 2012 06:13:42PM 2 points [-]

There is no dominant conceptual analysis of 'miracle' such that Putnam's sentence has a clear and distinct meaning. (I may be incorrect about this; I do not follow Philosophy of Religion.) Of course, since Putnam was writing to an extremely secular audience (by American standards), 'miracle' is a useful slur that essentially translates to 'WTF is this I don't even'.

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