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Risto_Saarelma comments on Rationality Quotes: May 2011 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: CronoDAS 02 May 2011 02:33AM

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Comment author: KenChen 02 May 2011 10:41:28PM 6 points [-]

If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it.

-- Paul Graham

Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 05 May 2011 06:10:43PM *  5 points [-]

If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it.

-- Paul Graham

But see also:

John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.

-Isaac Asimov, The Relativity of Wrong

(This was quoted by MichaelGR in a previous quote-thread.)

Comment author: arundelo 02 May 2011 11:38:24PM 3 points [-]

Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html

Comment author: SilasBarta 04 May 2011 04:44:07PM 2 points [-]

Huh? Isn't it worse to say that a statement is "not even wrong" -- that's it's content-free and doesn't specify a probability distribution you should move toward?

Comment author: shokwave 05 May 2011 04:59:10AM 3 points [-]

If a statement is false - that presupposes it having content of some sort, albeit wrong content. There are plenty of worse things that can be said about statements (not even wrong, for example) but these can't be said of statements that are true or false; they can only be said of statements that have no content. So the hierarchy goes: True > False > Not Even Wrong, and false statements are better than not even wrong ones.

Comment author: wedrifid 05 May 2011 04:37:14AM 2 points [-]

Isn't it worse to say that a statement is "not even wrong

I was thinking of making that rebuttal myself - but realised I had been preemptively countered. Because the statement is wrong and so already ahead of those statements that qualify for the even worse charge.

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