Finally, we come to a special case of particularist responses known as pragmatism., and it’s this kind of response that Yudkowsky offered. The idea of pragmatism is to say that there is some purpose to be served and by serving that purpose we can do an end-run around the problem of the criterion by tolerating unjustified knowledge so long as it works well enough to achieve some end
This kind of pragmatism solves an easier version of the problem. Winning, and it’s close relative, prediction, can both be measured directly. That what allows you tell that something works without having an apriori theoretical justification. On the other hand, correspondence-to-reality can’t be tested directly...you can’t stand apart from the map territory relationship. In Scientism it’s common to assume that predctiveness is a sign of correspondence...
This kind of pragmatism solves an easier version of the problem. Winning, and it’s close relative, prediction, can both be measured directly. That what allows you tell that something works without having an apriori theoretical justification. On the other hand, correspondence-to-reality can’t be tested directly...you can’t stand apart from the map territory relationship. In Scientism it’s common to assume that predctiveness is a sign of correspondence...