Re: Postmodernists have nothing useful to contribute (was: American education)

From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Sep 01 2002 - 11:25:39 MDT


On Sunday 01 September 2002 00:25, Colin Hales wrote:
> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
>
> > Damien Broderick wrote:
> > > ...
> AI work is a rather rude awakening in this area. I think I may have posted
> this before, but FWIW, Scientific Method has basically enshrined the
> following and seems entirely analogous to the operation of the mind (lines
> up pretty well with what Eliezer said, not surprisingly):
>
> 1) Fact. Unprovable theories about reality a la scientific method based on
> the assumption of an unknowable universe.
> 2) Belief. 1st person causal construct (regardless of any sound basis).
> 3) Truth. Belief as transferred to a 3rd party (2 layers of potential error
> additions).
>
> The relation of Truth/Belief to Facts is open. In evolutionary terms if
> your belief model works (even if it's got nothing to do with facts), you
> get to live.
>
> Funnily enough I managed to get to this point without knowing anything
> about Post Modernism. I remain triumphant in claiming near to complete
> ignorance of it. Bliss.
>
> cheers,
>
> Colin

I suspect that the useful aspects of postmodernism have suffused into the
general culture. I doubt that they will be remembered as a useful approach,
even if they did come up with some appropriate approaches (not clear), as
there is such a high noise to signal ratio that one does better to just
consult the ZeitGeist.
Popper, OTOH, while he may have problems has pointed out a very good approach
to use in many areas, at least on a first cut basis. Certainly as good as
Ockham's Razor.



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