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eli_sennesh comments on Philosophy professors fail on basic philosophy problems - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: shminux 15 July 2015 06:41PM

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Comment author: TheAncientGeek 17 July 2015 03:30:21PM *  2 points [-]

No, for just the reason I pointed out. Mathematicians, "hard" scientists, engineers, etc. all have objective measures of correctness.

Within their domains.

They can and do disprove wrong, biased results. And they certainly can't fall prey to a presentation bias that makes them give different answers to the same, simple, highly formalized question.

So when kahneman et al tested hard scientists foe presentation bias, they found them, out of the population, to be uniquely free from it? I don't recall hearing that result.

You are not comparing like with like. You are saying that science as a whole, over the long term, is able to correct it's biases, but you know perfectly well that in the short term, bad papers got published. Interviewing individual philosophers isnt comparable to the long term, en masse behaviour of science,

A problem, or area of study, may require a lot more knowledge than that of simple logic. But it shouldn't ever be contrary to simple logic.

Even if it's too simple?

Comment author: [deleted] 19 July 2015 03:47:48AM -1 points [-]

You are not comparing like with like. You are saying that science as a whole, over the long term, is able to correct it's biases, but you know perfectly well that in the short term, bad papers got published. Interviewing individual philosophers isnt comparable to the long term, en masse behaviour of science,

Where is the evidence that philosophy, as a field, has converged towards correctness over time?

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 19 July 2015 08:20:03AM 1 point [-]

Where is the need for it? The question us whether philosophers are doing their jobs competently. Can you fail at something you don't claim to be doing? Do philosophers claim have The Truth?

Comment author: [deleted] 20 July 2015 01:21:35PM -1 points [-]

Do philosophers claim have The Truth?

That's basically what they're for, yes, and certainly they claim to have more Truth than any other field, such as "mere" sciences.

Comment author: TheAncientGeek 20 July 2015 09:07:04PM *  1 point [-]

Is that what they say?

ETA

Socrates rather famous said the opposite...he only knows that he does not know.

The claim that philosophers sometimes make is that you can't just substitute science for philosophy because philosophy deals with a wider range of problems. But that isnt the same as claiming to have The Truth about them all.

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