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prase comments on Norms survey (dead) - Less Wrong Discussion

0 Post author: Cayenne 10 May 2011 11:01AM

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Comment author: prase 10 May 2011 12:59:13PM 1 point [-]

Fair enough. "Because" itself isn't perfectly transparent word: X because Y may mean that

  • (etymologically) Y is a cause of X: "I have been arrested because I have robbed a bank."
  • Y is a purpose for X: "I robbed the bank because I wanted the money."
  • X is logically deducible from Y: The apple fell down because of the laws of gravity.
  • (and I believed that also) X is probabilistically deducible from Y. I have used the word "because" in this sense, as a shorthand for "and the evidence for the previous claim is that", which after all may be ungrammatical.

In any case, should is redundand.