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2 questions about Maybe Logic & Occam's Razor

Started by Triple Zero, January 26, 2007, 12:00:16 PM

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LMNO

Well, shit.  In that case, I'm gonna keep using it.


LMNO
-Likes to sound cool.

LHX

obviously - any approach that suggests to 'opt for the simplest solution' only holds weight when in a climate of immediacy when time is of the essence

AND can only be responsibly be used if prefaced by the possibility of error (MAYBE)

that being said - if you throw me $12 billion over 5 years - i will swallow all my current conclusions and come back to you in 5 years with a more thorough answer about whatever is in question

maybe part of the problem with studying logic is that these people rarely have their neck in the noose


after wittgenstein got back from the war - his writings were suddenly different

it was all concise and in numerical order as tho he was desperately trying to keep track of things


in layman's terms, the razor seems to be one of the rare circumstances where the formal study of logic tries to lend itself toward practicality



something you can take home and use
neat hell

saturnine

There are a few interesting linguistic ways to put these principles into use. These tools are not perfect, but they sure as hell get you thinking and keep you clued in to alternate possibilities.

Try removing the word "need" from your vocabulary, since it is almost always conditional. It'll put you right in the driver's in terms of forcing you to acknowledge desires. You don't NEED to buy more toilet paper for the house -- you just REALLY WANT TO based on your cultural needs, hygiene habits, economic wealth, etc.

Try removing binaries of "good/bad" from your vocabulary, where actions, outcomes, and character traits are concerned. Replace them instead with "skillful" and "unskillful." It's not necessarily bad to lie -- but, considering the circumstances and possible consequences, it may or may not be unskillful. It may not be good for Steve Jobs to be an impetuous asshole, but it may or may not be skillful, depending. And when I rear-ended that soccer mom a few months ago? Well, it wasn't bad of me -- wasn't even entirely my responsibility. But I did some unskillful things that led to that outcome.

Reinforce your subjectivity when making critical assessments. Remind people that it's just your opinion. This is especially important for well-read, well-versed spags like us who tend to pre-meditate our opinions about things, and subsequently feel very confident expressing them verbally. Some people can read that confidence about our opinion as conviction that OUR OPINION IS THE CORRECT AND ONLY WAY. Which in turn makes us potentially look like hypocrites and idiots for conflating opinion with fact.

I'm bisexual, and that pretty much forces you to look at certain things on a continuum-based model rather than a binary model. The Kinsey Scale of sexual identification is a useful middle ground between binary sexuality definition and useless, "there-are-as-many-sexual-identities-as-there-are-people" uber-continuums.

Also, it's interesting to note that in Islam, whenever expressing a wish or hope or plan for the future, you preface it with "Insh'Allah" -- "if Allah wills it." All discussion of God/Allah aside, that's a pretty robust cultural acknowledgment that shit may not turn out the way you hope.

A friend and I developed a lot of these tools as Buddhist practices to develop mindfulness. It is AMAZING to me how well the dharma, Discordianism, and logic studies like the ones in this thread get along together.
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Eater of Clowns

Wait, I think I've seen this one before...is this where someone gets up and beats the shit out of everyone with a barstool?
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Quote from: saturnine on October 18, 2008, 09:56:18 PM
Try removing the word "need" from your vocabulary, since it is almost always conditional. It'll put you right in the driver's in terms of forcing you to acknowledge desires. You don't NEED to buy more toilet paper for the house -- you just REALLY WANT TO based on your cultural needs, hygiene habits, economic wealth, etc.

Rather that drop 'need' from my vocabulary, I specify that something is needed as a prerequisite for something else.  As in, "I need to buy more toilet paper in order to continue to wipe my ass with it without begging, borrowing, or stealing any."  The act of tacking on everything you need to make a 'need' statement true is interesting in itself, and highlights alternative ways get what you "need."

Quote from: Eater of Clowns on October 20, 2008, 12:33:48 AM
Wait, I think I've seen this one before...is this where someone gets up and beats the shit out of everyone with a barstool?

No, that thread is stickied up in Principia Discussions.
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