whowhowho comments on Reductionism - Less Wrong

40 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 16 March 2008 06:26AM

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Comment author: whowhowho 05 February 2013 07:54:06PM *  1 point [-]

Well, first of all, we should probably clarify that the original claim was that Bayesian rationality was a systematic way of producing good theories, and therefore presumably was meant to contrast with scattershot or intuitive ways of producing good theories,

That just makes matters worse. Bayes might systematically allow you judge the relative goodness of various theories, once they have been produced,, but it doesn't help at all in producing them. You can't just crank the handle on Bayes and get relativity

Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 February 2013 08:53:05PM *  1 point [-]

I'm not sure what you mean by "worse" here.
To my mind, challenging the original claim as false is far superior to failing to engage with it altogether, since it can lead to progress.

In that vein, perhaps it would help if you returned to JGWeissman's original comment and ask them to clarify what makes Bayesian rationality "a systematic way of producing good theories," so you can either learn from or correct them on the question.