VAuroch comments on Rationality Quotes April 2014 - LessWrong

8 Post author: elharo 07 April 2014 05:25PM

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Comment author: VAuroch 05 April 2014 04:48:38AM 4 points [-]

By that standard, all academic disciplines are BS disciplines.

Comment author: MugaSofer 04 May 2014 01:43:39PM *  1 point [-]

I believe that is the intended meaning, yes.

Comment author: VAuroch 04 May 2014 06:47:58PM -1 points [-]

Can't be. You can't draw a distinction within a category by separating it into two subcategories one of which is empty.

Comment author: [deleted] 04 May 2014 07:03:37PM *  2 points [-]

You can, though it's usually useless; but it also depends on whether that subcategory is always necessarily empty or it happens to be empty now but in principle it could be non-empty.

(But it's still a fallacy of grey: even if all academic disciplines were, in fact, BS disciplines, some disciplines may still be less BS than others.)

Comment author: MugaSofer 06 May 2014 08:03:38PM 1 point [-]

The category being separated is "disciplines", which divides into "BS" and "non-BS". "Academic" disciplines are thus a further subcategory of "BS" disciplines.

Actually, "academic" disciplines would probably be a subcategory of "disciplines" which is largely but not entirely subsumed by "BS" disciplines, but I don't usually demand that level of precision from witticisms.

[For the record, separating a category into two subcategories and proving one of them empty is just another way of proving the original category is identical with the non-empty subcategory. It is, indeed, valid from a technical perspective.]