Stephen2 comments on Math is Subjunctively Objective - Less Wrong

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

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Comment author: Stephen2 25 July 2008 01:43:37PM 0 points [-]

This might be stupid, but it's probably more intelligent than the 'subjunctive mood' grammar-joke I was going to tell.

Suppose I say, "Even if my mother were kidnapped by terrorists, I would still consider all terrorists freedom-fighters."

Suppose I believe that with such conviction that I'm unable to imagine a reality in which, regardless of whether the physical state of my brain changes, it would not still be true that terrorists+mom=freedom fighters. (The "terms" of this "equation" don't necessarily correspond with anything in the OP. The analogy is still functional).

In other words, I can dream up a scenario where terrorists are just terrorists, but I cannot fathom such a state of affairs actually coming to be.

So would this be subjunctively objective like your numerical epistemology or would it simply mean that my imagination is defective?

BTW, I don't truly believe anything I just wrote.