I ha ve read a lot of philosophy, and I don’t think EY is doing it at particualrly well. His occasional cross-disciplinary insights keep me going (I’m cross disiplinary too, I started in science and work in I.T).
But he often fails to communicate clearly (I still don’t know whether he thinks numbers exist) and argues vaguely.
If you’ll pardon the pun, I leave you with “Why I Stopped Worrying About the Definition of Life, and Why You Should as Well”.
I don’t see your point. For one thing, I’m not on the philosohpy “side” in some sense exclusive of being on the science or CS side or whatever. For another. there are always plenty of phils. who are agin GOCFA (Good Old Fashioned Conceptual Analysis). The collective noun for philosophers is “a disagreement”. Tha’ts another of
my catchphrases.
Eliezer often fails to communicate clearly (I still don’t know whether he thinks numbers exist) and argues vaguely.
Agree! Very frustrating. What I had in mind was, for example, his advice about dissolving the question, which is not the same advice you’d get from logical positivists or (most) contemporary naturalists.
I don’t see your point.
Sorry, I should have been clearer that I wasn’t trying to make much of a point by sending you the Machery article. I just wanted to send you a bit of snark. :)
What I had in mind was, for example, his advise about dissolving the question, which is not the same advice you’d get from logical positivists or (most) contemporary naturalists
I skimmed the paper. Dennett’s project is a dissolving one, though he does less to explain why we think we have qualia than Yudkowsky did with regard to why we think we have free will. But perhaps Dennett wrote something later which more explicitly sets out to explain why we think we have qualia?
I need to knowpositively how to answer typical philosophhical questions such as the meaning of life.
Only if the question is meaningful. Of course, just saying “Don’t do that then” doesn’t tell you how to resolve whether that’s the case or not, but necessarily expecting an answer rather than a dissolution is not necessarily correct.
I need to knowpositively how to answer typical philosophhical questions such as the meaning of life.
That’s a re-invention of LP, which has problems well known to philosophers.
Eliezer has written quite a bit about how to do philosophy well, and I intend to do so in the future.
If you’ll pardon the pun, I leave you with “Why I Stopped Worrying About the Definition of Life, and Why You Should as Well”.
I ha ve read a lot of philosophy, and I don’t think EY is doing it at particualrly well. His occasional cross-disciplinary insights keep me going (I’m cross disiplinary too, I started in science and work in I.T). But he often fails to communicate clearly (I still don’t know whether he thinks numbers exist) and argues vaguely.
I don’t see your point. For one thing, I’m not on the philosohpy “side” in some sense exclusive of being on the science or CS side or whatever. For another. there are always plenty of phils. who are agin GOCFA (Good Old Fashioned Conceptual Analysis). The collective noun for philosophers is “a disagreement”. Tha’ts another of my catchphrases.
Agree! Very frustrating. What I had in mind was, for example, his advice about dissolving the question, which is not the same advice you’d get from logical positivists or (most) contemporary naturalists.
Sorry, I should have been clearer that I wasn’t trying to make much of a point by sending you the Machery article. I just wanted to send you a bit of snark. :)
I don’t see the significance of that. You definitely get it from some notable naturalists,
I skimmed the paper. Dennett’s project is a dissolving one, though he does less to explain why we think we have qualia than Yudkowsky did with regard to why we think we have free will. But perhaps Dennett wrote something later which more explicitly sets out to explain why we think we have qualia?
Only if the question is meaningful. Of course, just saying “Don’t do that then” doesn’t tell you how to resolve whether that’s the case or not, but necessarily expecting an answer rather than a dissolution is not necessarily correct.