tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5204863782883637837.post4949393201025158497..comments2024-03-27T20:51:11.303-04:00Comments on Accepting Ignorance: Update to Epistemic CompetenceAlrenoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11119846531341190283noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5204863782883637837.post-53246203568879842372021-11-13T11:21:42.971-05:002021-11-13T11:21:42.971-05:00Yes. Indeed it's trivial.
You'll want to b...Yes. Indeed it's trivial.<br />You'll want to back up and try that one again. <br /><br />"Unfortunately once you have a coherent term which doesn't include random detritus or fail to include obvious specimens, it will no longer match the folk definition."<br /><br />If it's still missing things you want to cover, get a second definition and analyze it as a pair. "A coherent definition is far more important than your personal aesthetic hangups."<br /><br />--<br /><br />Plato's definition was bad because Plato genuinely had brain damage, not because definitions are bad. It is what the first attempt often looks like, but it should never have made it out of the workshop as-is. <br /><br />Technically Diogenes' rebuttal is also bad, because Plato obviously meant to refer to entities which are inherently featherless, not merely currently featherless. If Diogenes had cut off someone's leg and said, "Hey, not a man!" we would have just said, "No. Don't be an idiot."<br /><br />--<br /><br />Life: defends definable, failable goals.<br />Consciousness: the subjective<br />Intelligence: a conflation of three abilities.<br />Learning: bit gathering and retention.<br />Thinking: bit processing.<br />Creativity: bit generation. <br />Free will, descriptively: not having your actions determined by proximate external properties.<br />Logic: the study of meaning.<br />Understanding: to know which stands under. <br />Wisdom: prudence.<br />Prudence: correct prediction. <br />Racism (1): Heresy against Fascism.<br />Racism (2): Anything which makes a ninja envious.<br />Warrior caste: physical dominance.<br />Merchant caste: social dominance. <br /><br />I have a few dozen of these. Alrenoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11119846531341190283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5204863782883637837.post-2593288650095656422021-11-12T13:30:04.901-05:002021-11-12T13:30:04.901-05:00Has there ever been even one example where a defin...Has there ever been even one example where a definition by words only was actually precise enough to include the whole category, and exclude everything outside it?<br /><br />I think succinct arcane definitions miss the point. Is man's nakedness or bipedalism *salient*? No, hence the ridicule. But similarly, any definition that tries to define the whole of humanity in the space of a short paragraph will exhibit false positives and negatives.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com