LESSWRONG
LW

All of Unknown128's Comments + Replies

Reason and Intuition in science
Unknown12810

If we speak only about logic. How useful is logic in modern science? Not just in explaining findings to other people but also in the actual discovery?

Reply
Reason and Intuition in science
Unknown128*10

My own position is rationalist, I do believe that the proper use of reason is essential for understanding the world. Intuition cannot be separated from reason because it will only lead one to the truth if once mind is first "calibrated" by previous scientific research/rational ordering one has to learn to think rationally, which then makes once thought patterns (both conscious and unconscious) directed towards discovering what one seeks in science. Logic is an essential part of mathematics and science in general and most scientists do look at th... (read more)

Reply
Reason and Intuition in science
Unknown12810

Also he seems to attack abstract ideas in favor of "direct observation", but I have a hard time seing how one can free oneself from abstract reasoning.

Reply
Reason and Intuition in science
Unknown12820

I am introducing this position because its an attack on rationalism hence me asking Rationalists what they thought about it. It seems you Rationalists are unimpressed.

Michael Anton did occupy a serious position in the Trump administration and was called a serious intellectual even by some center left sources.

Reply
4Richard_Kennaway
Which, intuitionist mathematics or the screed by Nynznevh (translate using rot13.com) who has a BA in mathematics? To the extent that they have anything to do with each other at all, they are pretty much opposite things, and for different reasons neither of them impress me. Intuitionist mathematics sought to curb what Brouwer saw as the excesses of reason by putting up a fence limiting reason only to such methods as could be justified by (Brouwer's) intuition. Romanticism sees reason as a fence curbing intuition, a fence that must be destroyed to allow free rein to the passions that are hobbled by civilisation, that the strong may exult in their strength, rule over the weak, and "purify the world of refuse". But what do you think? You have quoted this and mentioned that, but not once ventured to express a view of your own. Put up or be dismissed as a troll.
1Unknown128
Also he seems to attack abstract ideas in favor of "direct observation", but I have a hard time seing how one can free oneself from abstract reasoning.
Reason and Intuition in science
Unknown128*40

I agree it's a terrible ideology. Still due to my ignorance in such matters and Pbfgvaf (translate using rot13.com) (who is the Bronze age Pervert in real life) scientific background (BA in math and PhD from Yale in Political science as well as a father who works at MIT) as well as Michael Antons claim that the book was "more often right than wrong in its statements" (including taking Pbfgvaf (translate using rot13.com) attacks on the theory of Evolution seriously) made me think that maybe what seems like irrational drivel might have some t... (read more)

Reply
4Richard_Kennaway
Intuitionism (mathematics) has nothing to do with fascist romanticism.
8Richard_Kennaway
The remedy for ignorance is searching for knowledge, not modestly swallowing anything anyone with a degree or two and "a father who works at MIT" tells you. And who is Michael Antons? As far as I can see, just another member of the alt-right, prominent mainly for an essay "The Flight 93 Election" (referring to the election that elected Trump, during the run-up to it). Whatever one thinks of Antons, there is nothing in that essay resembling the drunken ravings of Pbfgva Iynq Nynznevh (translate using rot13.com) who has a BA in Mathematics. This is a rationalist forum, so why introduce the likes of the irrationalist Pbfgvaf (translate using rot13.com) who has a BA in Mathematics? What is there in his wannabe Hitler shtick that should even raise him to our attention? The concept of "concern trolling" is raised to my attention right now, even if you are not Pbfgvaf (translate using rot13.com) (who has a BA in Mathematics) himself.
Reason and Intuition in science
Unknown12820

Thank you all for the enlightening answers! I would also like to ask how much correct flashes of intuition are themselves a product of making once mind think acording to rational rules. Dont discoveries usualy come from long research where initial flashes of intuition are often wrong and the scientist slowly reaches the truth step by step trough reasoning, experimenting and many intuitive flashes? Intuition is not arriving from some mysterious other place but is tied to their previous scientific research/rational ordering. Also can one really reduce reason to sylogisms or trial and error?

Reply
4Richard_Kennaway
"Intuition" is just a name for the ideas and beliefs we arrive at without being able to articulate why. They're all around us, not just in deep mathematics, but in trivial matters, like how I know I'm sitting in a chair right now. (If we could articulate things like that, we would already have humanoid robot servants that could take care of all the housekeeping.) Intuitions can as easily be right as wrong, in fact more easily wrong than right, for truth is a small target. Look at all the stuff that here we would generally dismiss as "woo": astrology, alternative medicine, chakras, etc. Pretty much all writings about these are based on no more than intuition. "Here's a flower that looks like an eye -- it must be good for treating eye diseases!" To have right intuitions rather than wrong ones, then just as for explicit reasoning, one must have been entangled with the world in order to obtain those right intuitions. They will not happen by chance, by the raw animal spirit in a state of religious intoxication that Pbfgva Iynq Nynznevh (translate using rot13.com) (who has a BA in Mathematics) valorises. Even if we do not know the process by which, for example, we learn to ride a bicycle, there must be such a process. You don't get to have the insight of a Gauss without having laboured long and hard over mathematics. Neither do you get to be the Beatles without working at your craft, practicing and practicing while your age peers are out partying every night and lazing in in the morning. You don't get to be the Beatles, or anything else of note, without putting in the work. BTW, logic has moved on a long way from "syllogisms", which is now a significant concept only in the history of logic, no longer in logic. I guess Pbfgva Iynq Nynznevh'f (translate using rot13.com) "BA in mathematics" did not include any courses on mathematical logic.