shminux comments on [Poll] Less Wrong and Mainstream Philosophy: How Different are We? - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 26 September 2012 12:25PM

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Comment author: shminux 27 September 2012 02:09:43AM 0 points [-]

Right, that's where he loses me every time. We disagree on what "knowing" means.

Comment author: TimS 27 September 2012 02:16:15AM 1 point [-]

Whereas I say that EY's position in the QM sequence would be right - if rationalism were more correct than empiricism.

Of course, I think your position on "knowing" is much too practical :) The fact that resolving physical realism vs. anti-realism doesn't pay rent at the engineer's bench does not mean it doesn't matter to Science. Whereas you are a hardcore instrumentalist.

I'll grant you that rationalism vs. empiricism is not a well-formed question if one is an instrumentalist.

Comment author: shminux 27 September 2012 02:36:09AM 0 points [-]

Well, we agree on something. Just to clarify, my instrumentalist approach comes from the frustration of not being able to argue "which model is correct?" without tying correctness to testability. I was a naive realist a year or so ago, before I started reading this forum regularly.

Comment author: TimS 27 September 2012 03:01:12AM 1 point [-]

Sure - falsifiability is the key issue.

I think that the physical realism sides would make different predictions about the process of scientific progress. So we compare those predictions to the actual data from the history of science. I happen to think Kuhn and Feyerabend make the better argument about how to interpret the history, so I'm an anti-realist. If one thinks Kuhn and Feyerabend made a mess of the history, realism is a much more appealing position. I almost think pragmatist didn't go far enough in his explanation of the difference.

Comment author: shminux 27 September 2012 04:37:53AM 0 points [-]

I happen to think Kuhn and Feyerabend make the better argument about how to interpret the history

Is there a way to unambiguously test this assertion?