02 MAR 2019 by ideonexus
Logic as Magical Thinking
These battles over definition are not taking place in the same universe as the one in which men throw around these terms online. But for the Logic Guys, the purpose of using these words — the sacred, magic words like “logic,” “objectivity,” “reason,” “rationality,” “fact” — is not to invoke the actual concepts themselves. It’s more a kind of incantation, whereby declaring your argument the single “logical” and “rational” one magically makes it so — and by e... 1 
notes
notes20 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
Reason: A Fictional Software
Reason allows users to specify in advance the decision they want it to reach, and only then to input all the facts. The program's task was to construct a plausible series of logical-sounding steps to connect the premises with the conclusion. The only copy was sold to the US Government for an undisclosed fee. 1 notes
notes22 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
The Point of Argument
The point of a good argument isn’t for one person to simply win over the other. It’s ideally for both to come away with cognitive gains.
Even if the goal of an argument is to reach a decision, the goal isn’t to win, the goal is to define the parameters for a good decision and then make the best possible decision with that in mind.
I’ve come to believe that when two reasonably smart people disagree on a subject, at the core, it is often because one of the following:
One or both of the ...
1 The goal should be to define the parameters of where everyone can agree.
03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus
A Logical Process to Understand True Wealth
I have tried out the following intellectual filtering procedure with
both multi-thousand general public audiences and with audiences
of only a hundred or so advanced scholars and have never
experienced disagreement with my progression of residual
conclusions. I proceed as follows: I am going to make a series of
analytical statements to you, and if anyone disagrees with me on
any statement we will discard that statement. Only those of all my
statements which remain 100 per cent unprotected wil... 1 notes
notesIt is not the artificial concept of wealth we have invented, but the resources we use to combat the forces of entropy and survive.
29 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
How Our Predisposition Toward Empathy Taints Our Logic
Our sexually selected instincts for displaying sympathy tend to affect our belief systems, not just our charity and courtship behavior. When individuals espouse ideological positions, we typically interpret their beliefs as signs of good or bad moral character. Individuals feel social pressure to adopt the beliefs that are conventionally accepted as indicating a "good heart," even when those beliefs are not rational. We may even find ourselves saying, "His ideas may be right, but his heart is... 1 notes
notesWe find logical ideas repulsive when they conflict with our need to associate with sensitive people. If a person suggests a correct and logical idea, but it is an idea that lacks empathy, we tend to find the individual repulsive (This happened to me on a thread when I suggested letting pandas go extinct).
11 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Solution to Russel's Paradox
An analysis of the paradoxes to be avoided shows that they all result from a kind of vicious circle. The vicious circles in question arise from supposing that a collection of objects may contain members which can only be defined by means of the collection as a whole. Thus, for example, the collection of propositions will be supposed to contain a proposition stating that “all propositions are either true or false.” It would seem, however, that such a statement could not be legitimate unles...The paradox that a set of sets that do not contain themselves must contain itself.
30 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Chemistry Logic is a Triumph of the Human Mind
The ingenuity and effective logic that enabled chemists to determine complex molecular structures from the number of isomers, the reactivity of the molecule and of its fragments, the freezing point, the empirical formula, the molecular weight, etc., is one of the outstanding triumphs of the human mind. 1 notes
notesIt is ingenius and effective logic.
01 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
Biology has Principles and Logic
I took biology in high school and didn't like it at all. It was focused on memorization. ... I didn't appreciate that biology also had principles and logic ... [rather than dealing with a] messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense. I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well. 1 notes
notesFrancis Collins describes how he came to love biology after initially dismissing it as rote memorization.
05 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Mathematics is the Science of Self-Evident Things
These estimates may well be enhanced by one from F. Klein (1849-1925), the leading German mathematician of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 'Mathematics in general is fundamentally the science of self-evident things.' ... If mathematics is indeed the science of self-evident things, mathematicians are a phenomenally stupid lot to waste the tons of good paper they do in proving the fact. Mathematics is abstract and it is hard, and any assertion that it is simple is true only in a sev... 1 notes
notesBut it is still complex and it is hard.
14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Logic and Math are the Rules We Work Within
The principles of logic and mathematics are true universally simply because we never allow them to be anything else. And the reason for this is that we cannot abandon them without contradicting ourselves, without sinning against the rules which govern the use of language, and so making our utterances self-stultifying. In other words, the truths of logic and mathematics are analytic propositions or tautologies.Folksonomies: mathematics logic
Folksonomies: mathematics logic
1 notes
notesThey cannot be anything other than universally true.
