Richard4 comments on Angry Atoms - Less Wrong

30 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 31 March 2008 12:28AM

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Comment author: Richard4 31 March 2008 03:01:03PM 0 points [-]

Michael - unless I've misunderstood, athmwiji's view sounds like good old-fashioned metaphysical idealism. It's an interesting view, and deserves serious attention, but I don't believe it myself because I think there could be a world (e.g. the zombie world) containing only physical stuff, without any need for "ideas" or phenomenal stuff. The idealist thus faces the same challenge as the materialist (just in the opposite direction): show me the contradiction in my description of the zombie world.

P.S. I use 'scientism' very precisely, to those who hold the indefensible assumption that empirical inquiry is the only form of inquiry (and associated verificationist claims, e.g. that only scientific discourse is coherent or meaningful). There was plenty of this sentiment expressed in the previous thread. (A couple of commenters even expressed their inability to distinguish between philosophy and religion, which is of course the primary symptom of scientism.) I suspect that this is one of the most common forms of bias among the scientifically educated but philosophically ignorant population. It would be interesting to see it (seriously) discussed here sometime.