Tom3 comments on Three Fallacies of Teleology - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 August 2008 10:27PM

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Comment author: Tom3 26 August 2008 01:05:06PM 0 points [-]

The third fallacy of teleology is to commit the Mind Projection Fallacy with respect to telos, supposing it to be an inherent property of an object or system. Indeed, one does this every time one speaks of the purpose of an event, rather than speaking of some particular agent desiring the consequences of that event.

I'm vaguely reminded of The Camel Has Two Humps. Perhaps it's the case that some people naturally have a knack for systemisation, while others are doomed to repeat the mind projection fallacy forever.