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Lumifer comments on Making My Peace with Belief - Less Wrong Discussion

14 Post author: OrphanWilde 03 December 2015 08:36PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 04 December 2015 04:11:17PM 3 points [-]

Do this, not that; the prediction is that "this" is better than "that".

Maybe, but smushing together "making predictions" and "having a particular vision of the world" gets dangerously close to empty philosophising. Of course every worldview implies predictions, but "Jesus Loves You" isn't an exercise in forecasting.

Besides, consider evolution. "Do not kill" works because societies without this commandment disintegrate pretty rapidly and do not make it. That doesn't make it a prediction, just -- like in biology -- a change that's good enough to survive.

Comment author: OrphanWilde 04 December 2015 04:23:18PM 0 points [-]

Maybe, but smushing together "making predictions" and "having a particular vision of the world" gets dangerously close to empty philosophising.

Every hypothesis is a "particular vision of the world", a particular idea about how the world works. Its usefulness is how well this idea translates to prediction.

Besides, consider evolution. "Do not kill" works because societies without this commandment disintegrate pretty rapidly and do not make it. That doesn't make it a prediction, just -- like in biology -- a change that's good enough to survive.

Science is just as much an evolutionary process? I'm not sure what the criticism here is.

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