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RichardKennaway comments on Open Thread, May 11 - May 17, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: Gondolinian 11 May 2015 12:16AM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 12 May 2015 07:00:49PM 0 points [-]

I suggest that an argument which begins with P and ends with something logically equivalent to P cannot be usefully described as "Suppose P would be true? Then P would be true!" This makes OW's hypothetical legitimate.

The argument has to go some distance. OrphanWilde is simply writing his hypothesis into his conclusion.

Comment author: Jiro 12 May 2015 07:10:45PM 0 points [-]

His hypothetical is "suppose atheism doesn't win". His conclusion is not "then atheism doesn't win", so he's not writing his hypothesis into his conclusion. Rather, his conclusion is "then rationality doesn't mean what one of your other premises says it means". That is not saying P and concluding P; it is saying P and concluding something logically equivalent to P.

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