anonymous12 comments on Empty Labels - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 February 2008 11:50PM

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Comment author: anonymous12 15 February 2008 08:17:06AM 1 point [-]

Here the illusion of inference comes from the labels, which conceal the premises, and pretend to novelty in the conclusion.

Surely you aren't suggesting that Aristotelian categorization is useless? Assigning arbitrary labels to premises is the only way that humans can make sense of large formal systems - such as software programs or axiomatic deductive systems. OTOH, trying to reason about real-world things and properties in a formally rigorous way will run into trouble whether or not you use Aristotelian labels.