[FRIAM] IS: Rhetoric in scientific arguments WAS: FW: Fractal discussion Landscape-bird songs

[glen ☣]

On 03/02/2017 11:04 AM, Eric Charles wrote:
> To "Peirce-up" the discussion of doubt a touch. To doubt something is to be unable to act as-if-it-were-true without reservation. So, for example, you do not doubt Newtonian mechanics under a wide range of conditions (you are willing to act as if it is true under many circumstances),

Personally, I don't think this is true.  It's not doubt that gives one pause.  It's the expected consequences.  But that requires a disambiguation of types of uncertainty.  Regardless, I do low-consequence things without reservation every day all day, independent of any doubt I have about a) the truth of my conceptions or b) whether my actions will pay off.  I think you make the point about consequences nicely in your discussion of replication.

To be concrete, let's say we're all in certain agreement that chopping off our ear trumpets will help us hear better.  My guess is most of us won't do it, not because we doubt the truth of our theory, but because it _hurts_.  Compare that to, say, typing log(0) into your calculator.  It's irrelevant whether you doubt the makers of the calculator as to whether you'll do it or not.

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☣ glen