Bugmaster comments on Math is Subjunctively Objective - Less Wrong

14 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 July 2008 11:06AM

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Comment author: Bugmaster 19 October 2011 01:11:09AM 3 points [-]

I suspect that most of the people decrying logic, axiomatic systems, etc. aren't objecting to reasoning in general so much as certain levels of formality...

Or, in my experience, specific topics. For example, such a person would say that reasoning does apply to topics such as deciding which car to buy, or which stock to invest to, or what the sum of the angles in a triangle is. Reasoning does not, however, apply to other topics such as deciding what to eat for lunch, which deity to worship (if any), whom to date, and which topics are subject to reason in the first place.

The above is a real example, BTW (assuming I understood the person's position correctly).

Comment author: TheOtherDave 19 October 2011 03:49:16AM 1 point [-]

(nods) I generally summarize this as "reason is useful only for those topics where I'm confident I'm right or am willing to be corrected if wrong." To which my response is typically "how very convenient for you that it works out that way."