Category: Epistemology and Method

  • So I agree definitions matter, but I agree that words that are not false or dece

    So I agree definitions matter, but I agree that words that are not false or deceptive matter than those that are.


    Source date (UTC): 2016-06-03 19:13:19 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/738810813927063552

    Reply addressees: @AliceTeller

    Replying to: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/738712785102721024


    IN REPLY TO:

    @AliceTeller

    @curtdoolittle You are mistaken, Science is a method. Words and definitions matter or there is no point in talking.

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/738712785102721024

  • (Its unlikely that I’m mistaken.) Science is a method for what? Speaking truthfu

    (Its unlikely that I’m mistaken.) Science is a method for what? Speaking truthfully:reducing error, bias, wishfulness, deceit.


    Source date (UTC): 2016-06-03 19:11:42 UTC

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/738810406718803968

    Reply addressees: @AliceTeller

    Replying to: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/738712785102721024


    IN REPLY TO:

    @AliceTeller

    @curtdoolittle You are mistaken, Science is a method. Words and definitions matter or there is no point in talking.

    Original post: https://twitter.com/i/web/status/738712785102721024

  • Please don’t be stupid. What is correspondence other than pairing? What is mathe

    Please don’t be stupid.

    What is correspondence other than pairing?

    What is mathematics other than pairing?

    Mathematics consists largely of removing properties from (deterministic)reality and constructing deductions with decreasing degrees of information.

    Logic consists of removing properties of from reality and constructing deductions with decreasing degrees of information.

    What is communication other than pairing?

    We use different terms but we pair (compare) and differentiate (remainder)

    We can use the oppposite process as well: we can restore correspondnce with reality in order to test whether our hypotheses can supply the information missing.

    This is how we come to understand BOTH critical rationalism and its complietion with operationalism and morality.


    Source date (UTC): 2016-06-03 06:01:00 UTC

  • OPERATIONALISM MATTERS IN MATHEMATICS: DEMYSTIFYING AND EXPLAINING THE ART OF DE

    https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160524-mathematicians-bridge-finite-infinite-divide/WHY OPERATIONALISM MATTERS IN MATHEMATICS: DEMYSTIFYING AND EXPLAINING THE ART OF DEDUCTION OF DETERMINISTIC PHENOMENON WITH DECREASTING AMOUTS OF INFORMATION.

    This subject is interesting if for no other reason than mathematical language developed out of a form of mysticism(platonism), and has retained some of those characteristics across over two thousand years.

    The intuitionists failed to create the reformation that would have made these subjects quite simple to understand.

    We have reformed physics from the Aristotelian “first mover” category of language. We have reformed morality to be expressed in economic language. but we have not reformed the language of mathematics, thereby reducing mathematical platonism to operational (existential and computable) axioms.

    If we do so, the discipline of mathematics has evolved as much by eliminating axioms of correspondence (or asserting axioms of non-correspondence), then leaving mathematicians to attempt to find methods of deduction with fewer and fewer properties to work with.

    From this perspective, mathematical reasoning has been an exercise in the exploration of deduction of deterministic systems of correspondence (pairs) using decreasing information because of decreasing axioms (rules) of correspondence.

    Or more simply said, mathematics evolved from the pairing of stones while counting sheep, then giving names to the stones, then positional names to larger quantities of stones. then to sets of stones. Then to ratios of stones. Then space, then time. Then deductions from stones, space, and time.

    So we have merely increased the properties (axioms) and removed the properties (axioms) of correspondence with reality and explored how to perform deductions with more or fewer properties (axioms) of correspondence.

    That we have not reformed the philosophy and language mathematics as we have in other fields is due to the fact that the intuitionists in all fields (Bridgman/physics, Mises in economics, Brouwer/mathematics, and various authors in Psychology) possessed different incentives and different threats to their credibility. Interestingly, psychology has reformed through the use of ‘operationism’, the physical sciences have reformed in large part, economics has not reformed, and mathematics has not. And the answer why is interesting: psychology was under threat of classification as a pseudoscience threatening incomes. Economists currently fight that battle, but the political utility of models plus the extensive time that passes (a generation or more) before policy makes itself visible, provides convenient escape from criticism. Mathematics has not in large part because unlike psychology, economics, or the physical sciences **it’s external consequences are irrelevant**. Meaning that there is no pressure to reform, because mathematicians outside of the sciences have no feedback mechanism to force them to.

    There is nothing magical or mysterious about mathematics. What’s interesting is how we add and subtract properties of reality in order to created models that retain determinism and allow us to perform deductions with decreasing information, about scale independent patterns.

    The only reason it’s even vaguely interesting is because the human mind is so easily overwhelmed with but a few short term memory facts, and a few axis of causality. Almost all mathematical operations (transformations) are determined by the capacity of our minds, and greater minds might not need symbols and operators of similar simplicity in order to see deductions or relations of far greater complexity.

    So, mathematics is trivial really. But if you talk about it in magic words, it’s going to sound magical. When really, it’s just a matter of not being able to sense relations with our mind, the same way we cannot sense distant objects in the heavens with our eyes, the same way we cannot hear distant sounds with our ears or feel subtle vibrations with our feet.

    We use tools of all forms to increase the power of our senses, and mathematics consists of states and operations that humans can operate and sense in complex deterministic models what we cannot sense and perceive without states and operations to assist us.

    The moment you add or remove an axiom (command, or fact) the results are deterministic. The interesting part is only that we are developing the art of deduction for increasingly informationally sparse relations.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine


    Source date (UTC): 2016-06-02 05:09:00 UTC

  • “How does one determine truthfulness? Or truth? Would “accurate” not be a better

    —“How does one determine truthfulness? Or truth? Would “accurate” not be a better formulation? Can that be constructed?”—- Arthur K

    One cannot knowingly speak the most parsimonious truth possible.

    One can however perform such thorough due diligence that he can warranty that he speaks truthfully: meaning diligently free of error, bias, wishful thinking, suggestion, and deceit.

    One can perform the following tests of due diligence, any of which can falsify his ideas:

    1) categorical consistency (Identity)

    2) internal consistency (logical)

    3) external consistency (external correspondence)

    4) existential consistency (operational language)

    5) moral consistency (voluntary transfers)

    6) full accounting

    7) parsimony and limits (scope)

    8) falsifiability.

    If you pass all 8 of those hurdles then you speak as truthfully as is humanly (or even superhumanly) possible.

    But it is quite an informative exercise to look at 100 papers or books in each discipline and ask which of these tests of due diligence is provided and which is not.

    Almost everyone fails.

    Truth is hard.

    The question is why we permit verbal products in the informational commons and knowledge marketplace, but do not permit defective products or services in the physical commons and marketplace?

    Curt Doolittle


    Source date (UTC): 2016-06-01 09:32:00 UTC

  • ON ASKING FOR CITATIONS (JUSTIFICATIONISM) There is a difference between questio

    ON ASKING FOR CITATIONS (JUSTIFICATIONISM)

    There is a difference between questioning experimental data, and questioning asserted theory.

    We can ask for data for cites – that’s criticism, but we can’t ask for arguments for cites – that’s justificationism.

    Best answer is not to request cites but to offer alternative, more parsimonious hypotheses- what we call criticism, and see if the original argument survives.

    While dishonest people ask for cites in order to create a justificationary rhetorical fallacy, what most honest people mean when they ask for cites is that they want to know more, so that they can judge for themselves.

    My position on these questions is driven empirically: papers are almost always *shit* (always actually), and so the only works worth recommending are books that integrate hypotheses into contextual knowledge.

    I’d get into why that’s true but that would take me a while.

    So, ask for, and supply:

    1) cites for experimental data,

    2) counter argument for theory,

    3) books for understanding.

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine.


    Source date (UTC): 2016-06-01 03:08:00 UTC

  • What Does The Word ‘Is’ Mean? (The “Copula”)

    ” I promise the subject exists as the experience of… “ The cat is black = “I promise if you look at the cat it will appear to reflect the color black to you, or anyone else that observes it.” WHY DO I CARE? WHY DO YOU CARE? If you cannot make your argument without the word ‘is’ then you are almost surely engaging in fallacy. Almost every criticism I receive is constructed out of conveniently self-deceptive confirmation bias using justificationary phrasings. IS (EXISTS) REFERS TO: 1) Exists (identity) 3) Exists in this location or time (Space and Time) 2) Exists with this or these properties (Properties) 4) Exists with the properties of this class. (Categories) We use the verb to-be for the same reason we give names to complex processes, and the same reason mathematicians call functions ‘numbers’: because it’s a verbal convenience that reduces our effort in organizing spoken words. ie:shortcuts. MISUSE We tend to misuse the verb ‘is’ in order 1) use the ‘verbal simplification’ of ‘is’ to obscure our lack of understanding of the subject matter – which if stated operationally would demonstrate our incompetence with the subject. 2) to equate that which is not equal in order to justify a fallacy. 3) conflate experience, action, and existence – which are three points of view. We do not conflate first, second and third person narration, so why would we conflate experience, action, and existence? We do so for a number of reasons not the least of which is to attribute to experiences the argumentative weight of actions or existence. In other words, to lie that an experience is a cost. (Although to women and beta males, untrained in mental discipline this solipsism seems to be a common defect they adhere to in order to preserve their illusions – almost always status related.) 4) All of the above: to obscure our ignorance, to equate as equal that which is not, and to conflate experience action and existence in order to attribute cost to the experience of emotions. THE DISCIPLINE OF GRAMMAR IS BEHIND THE TIMES The very reference to ‘joining’ or ‘the copula’ is archaic. All human language consists of the construction of sets of analogies to experience by the transfer of properties by analogies. ***The verb to be functions as a promise of perceivable properties*** Sure, grammar is helpful for teachers of the young that wish to explain word order, and usage, but word order and usage are different from meaning. We would be far better off in teaching grammar, logic, and rhetoric by reducing our study of language to it’s constituent parts of communication: analogies to experience through the use of category(set) and property. It may be helpful teach the young grammatical usage by repetition(as a craft), but when we come to logic and rhetoric (adult conversation), and in particular argument (the pursuit of truth) then we can also teach grammar as the branch of logic that it is: sets and properties. Meaning that colloquial, craftsmanly, and logical language evolve with our abilities just as ethics evolve from imitative, to virtuous, to rules, to outcomes. Just as mathematics evolves from arithmetic, to accounting, algebra, to geometry and trigonometry, to calculus, to statistics. Just as science evolves from that which is observable(human scale), that which exists up to the limits of human scale(Newtonian), to that which exists beyond human scale (relativity), to that which exists at super and sub scales (the missing theory of everything). So try to make your argument without the word ‘is’. Look at the paragraphs above and observe how infrequently I use it, and that those few times I do, I use it as reference to existential properties. But then, it is not those of us who wish to advance false ideas that wish to study this technique, but those of us who wish to police the commons against the multitude of pollutions created by the wishful thinking and outright deceit of well meaning fools, and ill meaning craftsmen. (chapter inclusion quality) Curt Doolittle The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine

  • What Does The Word ‘Is’ Mean? (The “Copula”)

    ” I promise the subject exists as the experience of… “ The cat is black = “I promise if you look at the cat it will appear to reflect the color black to you, or anyone else that observes it.” WHY DO I CARE? WHY DO YOU CARE? If you cannot make your argument without the word ‘is’ then you are almost surely engaging in fallacy. Almost every criticism I receive is constructed out of conveniently self-deceptive confirmation bias using justificationary phrasings. IS (EXISTS) REFERS TO: 1) Exists (identity) 3) Exists in this location or time (Space and Time) 2) Exists with this or these properties (Properties) 4) Exists with the properties of this class. (Categories) We use the verb to-be for the same reason we give names to complex processes, and the same reason mathematicians call functions ‘numbers’: because it’s a verbal convenience that reduces our effort in organizing spoken words. ie:shortcuts. MISUSE We tend to misuse the verb ‘is’ in order 1) use the ‘verbal simplification’ of ‘is’ to obscure our lack of understanding of the subject matter – which if stated operationally would demonstrate our incompetence with the subject. 2) to equate that which is not equal in order to justify a fallacy. 3) conflate experience, action, and existence – which are three points of view. We do not conflate first, second and third person narration, so why would we conflate experience, action, and existence? We do so for a number of reasons not the least of which is to attribute to experiences the argumentative weight of actions or existence. In other words, to lie that an experience is a cost. (Although to women and beta males, untrained in mental discipline this solipsism seems to be a common defect they adhere to in order to preserve their illusions – almost always status related.) 4) All of the above: to obscure our ignorance, to equate as equal that which is not, and to conflate experience action and existence in order to attribute cost to the experience of emotions. THE DISCIPLINE OF GRAMMAR IS BEHIND THE TIMES The very reference to ‘joining’ or ‘the copula’ is archaic. All human language consists of the construction of sets of analogies to experience by the transfer of properties by analogies. ***The verb to be functions as a promise of perceivable properties*** Sure, grammar is helpful for teachers of the young that wish to explain word order, and usage, but word order and usage are different from meaning. We would be far better off in teaching grammar, logic, and rhetoric by reducing our study of language to it’s constituent parts of communication: analogies to experience through the use of category(set) and property. It may be helpful teach the young grammatical usage by repetition(as a craft), but when we come to logic and rhetoric (adult conversation), and in particular argument (the pursuit of truth) then we can also teach grammar as the branch of logic that it is: sets and properties. Meaning that colloquial, craftsmanly, and logical language evolve with our abilities just as ethics evolve from imitative, to virtuous, to rules, to outcomes. Just as mathematics evolves from arithmetic, to accounting, algebra, to geometry and trigonometry, to calculus, to statistics. Just as science evolves from that which is observable(human scale), that which exists up to the limits of human scale(Newtonian), to that which exists beyond human scale (relativity), to that which exists at super and sub scales (the missing theory of everything). So try to make your argument without the word ‘is’. Look at the paragraphs above and observe how infrequently I use it, and that those few times I do, I use it as reference to existential properties. But then, it is not those of us who wish to advance false ideas that wish to study this technique, but those of us who wish to police the commons against the multitude of pollutions created by the wishful thinking and outright deceit of well meaning fools, and ill meaning craftsmen. (chapter inclusion quality) Curt Doolittle The Propertarian Institute Kiev, Ukraine

  • GRAMMAR IS TAUGHT AS JUSTIFICATION, NOT CRITICISM But the problem of our era is

    GRAMMAR IS TAUGHT AS JUSTIFICATION, NOT CRITICISM

    But the problem of our era is the elimination of pseudoscience and deceit put forth by marxists, socialists, feminists, and postmodernists.

    So there is no reason we cannot teach grammar as not just ‘the good manners of victorian expression’, but as ‘the art of preventing the pollution of the commons by those who would produce deceptions in vast numbers with ease.


    Source date (UTC): 2016-05-31 03:27:00 UTC

  • WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘IS’ MEAN? (The “COPULA”) ” I promise the subject exists as t

    WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘IS’ MEAN? (The “COPULA”)

    ” I promise the subject exists as the experience of… “

    The cat is black = “I promise if you look at the cat it will appear to reflect the color black to you, or anyone else that observes it.”

    WHY DO I CARE? WHY DO YOU CARE?

    If you cannot make your argument without the word ‘is’ then you are almost surely engaging in fallacy. Almost every criticism I receive is constructed out of conveniently self-deceptive confirmation bias using justificationary phrasings.

    IS (EXISTS) REFERS TO:

    1) Exists (identity)

    3) Exists in this location or time (Space and Time)

    2) Exists with this or these properties (Properties)

    4) Exists with the properties of this class. (Categories)

    We use the verb to-be for the same reason we give names to complex processes, and the same reason mathematicians call functions ‘numbers’: because it’s a verbal convenience that reduces our effort in organizing spoken words. ie:shortcuts.

    MISUSE

    We tend to misuse the verb ‘is’ in order

    1) use the ‘verbal simplification’ of ‘is’ to obscure our lack of understanding of the subject matter – which if stated operationally would demonstrate our incompetence with the subject.

    2) to equate that which is not equal in order to justify a fallacy.

    3) conflate experience, action, and existence – which are three points of view. We do not conflate first, second and third person narration, so why would we conflate experience, action, and existence? We do so for a number of reasons not the least of which is to attribute to experiences the argumentative weight of actions or existence. In other words, to lie that an experience is a cost. (Although to women and beta males, untrained in mental discipline this solipsism seems to be a common defect they adhere to in order to preserve their illusions – almost always status related.)

    4) All of the above: to obscure our ignorance, to equate as equal that which is not, and to conflate experience action and existence in order to attribute cost to the experience of emotions.

    THE DISCIPLINE OF GRAMMAR IS BEHIND THE TIMES

    The very reference to ‘joining’ or ‘the copula’ is archaic. All human language consists of the construction of sets of analogies to experience by the transfer of properties by analogies.

    ***The verb to be functions as a promise of perceivable properties***

    Sure, grammar is helpful for teachers of the young that wish to explain word order, and usage, but word order and usage are different from meaning. We would be far better off in teaching grammar, logic, and rhetoric by reducing our study of language to it’s constituent parts of communication: analogies to experience through the use of category(set) and property.

    It may be helpful teach the young grammatical usage by repetition(as a craft), but when we come to logic and rhetoric (adult conversation), and in particular argument (the pursuit of truth) then we can also teach grammar as the branch of logic that it is: sets and properties. Meaning that colloquial, craftsmanly, and logical language evolve with our abilities just as ethics evolve from imitative, to virtuous, to rules, to outcomes. Just as mathematics evolves from arithmetic, to accounting, algebra, to geometry and trigonometry, to calculus, to statistics. Just as science evolves from that which is observable(human scale), that which exists up to the limits of human scale(Newtonian), to that which exists beyond human scale (relativity), to that which exists at super and sub scales (the missing theory of everything).

    So try to make your argument without the word ‘is’. Look at the paragraphs above and observe how infrequently I use it, and that those few times I do, I use it as reference to existential properties.

    But then, it is not those of us who wish to advance false ideas that wish to study this technique, but those of us who wish to police the commons against the multitude of pollutions created by the wishful thinking and outright deceit of well meaning fools, and ill meaning craftsmen.

    (chapter inclusion quality)

    Curt Doolittle

    The Propertarian Institute

    Kiev, Ukraine


    Source date (UTC): 2016-05-31 03:15:00 UTC