Category Archives: epistemology

More Things That Are Not Arguments

Posted on 2013-04-22 by TJ

I recently had some interactions with anti-gun-control people (there is a lot of that about) in which one of them offered the following statement (which is not an argument): “if someone is really intent on hurting someone, even if they … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, probability, psychology, religion, science | Leave a comment

Supernatural Explanations

Posted on 2013-04-01 by TJ

Before talking about supernatural explanations, it’s a good idea to say something about explanations in general. An explanation is a causal account of a particular situation based on general principles, laws or abstractions. Causal accounts are general, explanatory accounts are … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, god, probability, psychology, quantum, religion, science | Leave a comment

What is Art?

Posted on 2013-03-03 by TJ

Art is an act of communication between two human beings that involves intentionality on the part of the creator and inference of that intentionality on the part of at least one impersonal experiencer. By “impersonal experiencer” I mean one who … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, language, poetry | 2 Comments

Why Isn’t the Germ Theory of Disease Mentioned in Scripture?

Posted on 2013-02-24 by TJ

My text for the day will be the Gospel According to Lister, in which he recounts the revelation God gave to His beloved prophet, Pasteur: And in those days there was a great sickness in the land, and the people … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, god, history, life, psychology, religion, science | Leave a comment

Blur

Posted on 2013-02-05 by TJ

Science is the discipline of publicly testing ideas by systematic observation and controlled experiment. There is a lot of stuff entailed by that claim: the whole of actual scientific practice, in fact. The specific sciences and subdisciplines all have their … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, psychology, religion, science | Leave a comment

Things That Are Not Arguments

Posted on 2012-11-22 by TJ

This story of a group of Australian geologists who “undiscovered” an island in the Coral Sea clearly proves all of the following: Anti-science conservatism is true: Obviously if science can get an entire island wrong it must be the case … Continue reading →

Posted in bayes, epistemology, politics, probability, psychology, science | Leave a comment

Systematic vs Statistical Error

Posted on 2012-11-11 by TJ

I’ve seen a few people ask about why the election odds at electionprojection.com, 538, et al all fell in favour of the side with a significantly greater than 50% chance of winning. After all, if you predicted 10 senate races … Continue reading →

Posted in bayes, epistemology, prediction, probability | Leave a comment

Bayes’ Theorem for the Perplexed

Posted on 2012-11-05 by TJ

We live in the Age of Bayes, although many people aren’t up to speed on that yet. Bayesian methods are slowly percolating their way out of the physical sciences and into the wider world, and will slowly displace everything else. … Continue reading →

Posted in bayes, epistemology, probability | Leave a comment

Reification

Posted on 2012-08-22 by TJ

Re’-if-y(v): the act of making something real. I’ve long argued that the primary purpose of abstraction is to lie, both to ourselves and others, and reification is one of the main ways we do this. I happened across an example … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, life, psychology | Leave a comment

Paul Ryan is not a “Randian”

Posted on 2012-08-12 by TJ

Presumably a “Randian” is a person who shares a substantial range of agreement with the fundamental principles espoused by Ayn Rand, which were: 1) ethically: egoism based on a false set of empirical claims about the kind of beings humans … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, politics | Leave a comment