TimS comments on Intuitions Aren't Shared That Way - Less Wrong

31 Post author: lukeprog 29 November 2012 06:19AM

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Comment author: TimS 03 December 2012 08:08:27PM 0 points [-]

The word "True" is overloaded in the ordinary vernacular. Eliezer's answer is to set up a separate standard for empirical and mathematical propositions.

Empirical assertions use the label "true" when they correspond to reality. Mathematical assertions use the label "valid" when the theorem follows from the axioms.

Comment author: Peterdjones 03 December 2012 09:26:34PM *  1 point [-]

Eliezer's answer is to set up a separate standard for empirical and mathematical propositions.

I dont' think it is, and that's a bad answer anyway. To say that two unrelated approaches are both truth allows anthing to join the truth club, since there are no longer criteria for membership.

However, there is an approach that allows pluralism, AKA "overloading", but avoids Anything Goes

Comment author: TimS 04 December 2012 05:01:56PM 0 points [-]

Well, I don't think that Eliezer would call mathematically valid propositions "true." I don't find that answer any more satisfying than you do. But (as your link suggests), I don't think he can do better without abandoning the correspondence theory.