katydee comments on Rationality Quotes December 2012 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Thomas 03 December 2012 02:33AM

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Comment author: katydee 02 December 2012 08:15:19AM 15 points [-]

Do not read written works and think, "This is the Way." Written works are like the gate to approach the Way. Thus, there are people who remain ignorant of the Way regardless of how much they have learned and how many Chinese characters they know. Though they face the pages and read as skillfully as though they were annotating the ancients, they are ignorant of the truth and so do not make the Way their own.

— Yagyū Munenori, The Life-Giving Sword

Comment author: katydee 02 December 2012 08:21:44AM 9 points [-]

Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to approach the Way without studying. Still, one cannot say that a man embodies the Way simply because he has studied and speaks well. There are also people who are naturally in harmony with the Way and who have never studied at all.

— Yagyū Munenori, The Life-Giving Sword

Comment author: Grif 03 December 2012 03:41:16AM *  6 points [-]

A: Embodies the Way. B: Has studied. P(A|B)>P(A|~B). P(A|B)<1. P(A&~B)>0.

Comment author: [deleted] 03 December 2012 04:20:56PM 2 points [-]

“it is quite difficult to approach the Way without studying” is more like P(A|~B) << 1.

Comment author: Kindly 03 December 2012 04:29:03PM *  3 points [-]

In fact, the quote says nothing at all about lower bounds on P(A|B). It's possible that it's even more difficult to approach the Way by studying.

Comment author: faul_sname 03 December 2012 07:45:16PM 0 points [-]

True, but only if P(B) > P(~B) (that is, if more people study than don't study).

Comment author: Sengachi 04 December 2012 01:55:13AM 1 point [-]

Ah, we are forgetting that sometimes books may be actively misleading, and may deviate one from truth (no matter how much you read those propaganda books, they probably won't tell you what you really need to know).

Comment author: faul_sname 04 December 2012 06:02:15AM *  0 points [-]

Ah, I had misread the quote, and confused P(A|B) with P(B|A). Nevertheless, I think your objection is with the statement that P(A|B) > P(A|~B).

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