From: Jeff Medina (analyticphilosophy@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Oct 24 2004 - 14:25:25 MDT
Eliezer said: "I have little use for conclusions that are absolutely
certain given their assumptions. I want conclusions that are
correct."
You speak to this effect frequently, as though there were some way
around assumptions and uncertainty. Would you mind elaborating on this
source of objective, infallible truth to which you demand all
suggestions to live up? I'm baffled as to how you can make statements
like the above quoted one, when there is no means of doing better than
"conclusions that are absolutely certain given their assumptions". All
reasoning requires two sorts of assumptions; (1)
axioms/premises/empirical data (the place from which reasoning starts)
and (2) rules of inference (methodology that is *assumed* to be valid
for producing new truths from old ones).
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