Richard_Hollerith2 comments on Argument Screens Off Authority - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 December 2007 12:05AM

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Comment author: Richard_Hollerith2 16 December 2007 12:19:25PM 0 points [-]

Sorry, I do not know that book.

Bob Unwin, in my humble opinion, math is a poor choice of example to make your point because mathematical knowledge can be established by a proof (with a calculation being a kind of proof) and what distinguishes a proof from other kinds of arguments is the ease with which a proof can be verified by nonexperts. (Yes, yes, a math expert's opinion on whether someone will discover a proof of a particular proposition is worth something, but the vast majority of the value of math resides in knowledge for which a proof already exists.)