Kindly comments on Train Philosophers with Pearl and Kahneman, not Plato and Kant - Less Wrong

65 Post author: lukeprog 06 December 2012 12:42AM

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Comment author: Kindly 07 December 2012 04:03:01PM *  5 points [-]

Most people could not single-handedly reform philosophy. There has to be some evidence that Luke is more capable of doing it than most people, or else we are quite sure he is not up to the task by default.

Comment author: thomblake 07 December 2012 04:29:35PM 2 points [-]

There has to be some evidence that Luke is more capable of doing it than most people

This is Luke Muehlhauser we're talking about.

Comment author: Kindly 07 December 2012 04:34:12PM *  5 points [-]

Okay, and that's an argument; one which has... uh... interesting validity. I'm not sure how to condition on Alicorn's dinner parties as evidence, though, so let's set that aside for now. Would you say, at least, that the fact I am not a renowned philosopher is sufficient to conclude, pending further evidence, that I'm incapable of reforming philosophy?

Edit: in the interests of maintaining my anonymity, let's assume for the sake of argument that I am not, in fact, a renowned philosopher; this should not be taken as indicative of my actual status in the philosophy world one way or the other.

Comment author: thomblake 07 December 2012 05:09:07PM 1 point [-]

Would you say, at least, that the fact I am not a renowned philosopher is sufficient to conclude, pending further evidence, that I'm incapable of reforming philosophy?

Not given background knowledge. You're on Less Wrong, so there is high probability that you're capable of becoming capable of arbitrary possible things. And capability is transitive, so that means there is high probability that you're capable of that particular thing.

Most people aren't already renowned philosophers, and most of those don't reform philosophy, and for those that did, they usually became renowned in the process of reforming philosophy, so that's not much evidence either way.

Comment author: Peterdjones 07 December 2012 05:17:40PM 5 points [-]

You're on Less Wrong, so there is high probability that you're capable of becoming capable of arbitrary possible things

And that's an argument; one which has... uh... interesting validity.

Comment author: MugaSofer 15 December 2012 05:19:14PM -1 points [-]

Can't argue with that.

Not sure why you feel the need to remind us...