Jiro comments on Self-Congratulatory Rationalism - Less Wrong

51 Post author: ChrisHallquist 01 March 2014 08:52AM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 03 May 2014 07:57:13PM 1 point [-]

I just also think it's a necessary fact.

What's your evidence for this? Keep in mind that the history of science is full of people asserting that X has to be the case because they couldn't imagine the world being otherwise, only for subsequent discoveries to show that X is not in fact the case.

Comment author: Jiro 04 May 2014 02:24:29AM *  0 points [-]

There's a difference between "can't imagine" in a colloquial sense, and actual inability to imagine. There's also a difference between not being able to think of how something fits into our knowledge about the universe (for instance, not being able to come up with a mechanism or not being able to see how the evidence supports it) and not being able to imagine the thing itself.

There also aren't as many examples of this in the history of science as you probably think. Most of the examples that come to people's mind involve scientists versus noscientists.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 04 May 2014 10:55:25PM 1 point [-]

There also aren't as many examples of this in the history of science as you probably think.

See my reply to army above.