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TheOtherDave comments on Rationality Quotes November 2012 - Less Wrong
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Previously approximated here.
I still habitually complete this joke with:
Though I'm now tempted to add:
"Hmph," snorts the cognitive psychologist. "Such presumption. An event occurred that we experienced as the perception of a black sheep, only one side of which was visible, standing on what we believed to be a field in Scotland."
I've heard a version in which after the mathematician speaks, the shepherd yells “Snowy White [the name of the sheep]! Stop rolling in the mud!”
Best version, in my snap judgment. The story, told this way, is about the different modes of thinking of astronomers, physicists, mathematicians, and shepherds. (and there are other variations about the approaches of stage magicians and cognitive psychologists, each of which has a characteristic interest. As a pure and careful thinker, the mathematician comes up with something similar to the practical approach of the stage magician, or the more-carefully-specified approach of the cognitive psychologist.)
But the shepherd is living in a different realm, very connected to reality, and comes up with something, from knowledge, not from thinking and careful analysis, that the sheep isn't black at all. The cognitive psychologist allowed for this, distinguishing the possibility of perceptual error, but still could not speak with authority about the sheep itself.
But this version doesn't mention the cognitive psychologist. The shepherd essentially confirms the conceptual space of the cognitive psychologist.
"Bah", says the thermodynamicist. "All I know is that your brain is in a configuration that makes you say you saw a black sheep a minute ago."
"Meh", says the trivialist. "Scottish sheep are black. Scottish sheep are white. Scottish sheep are black and white. Scottish sheep are purple octopuses. And I don't even need to look out the window."
While everyone else is arguing the pragmatist has googled "Scottish Sheep varieties"
And Robin Hanson sets up a prediction market in Scottish sheep colors.
And Paul Graham is making money off of startups that try to profit from the recent boom in Scottish sheep color economies. Oh wait...
Cloned white and black True ScotsSheep with lifetime color warranties are marketed, free shipping worldwide.
Add in another scoffing thermodynamicist, and we can round out the joke with an infinite regress.
And the biologist says, "guys, that's a dog"