Esar comments on Rationality Quotes October 2012 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: MBlume 02 October 2012 06:50PM

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Comment author: gwern 09 October 2012 10:32:53PM 0 points [-]

Though now I suppose my complaint should be 'If no trade, then war' isn't contradicted by cases of 'trade, then war'. It would be contradicted by cases of 'no trade, no war'.

True, logically it could just be the case that both trade and no trade lead to war... I think most people would interpret claims more meaningfully, however, in which case trade and war is useful to have examples of.

Comment author: [deleted] 10 October 2012 01:37:34AM 1 point [-]

'No trade then war' could well be an informative causal claim, or a reliable generalization even if its also sometimes true that war follows trade as well.