tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post468196719198278715..comments2024-03-28T05:47:54.177+00:00Comments on Philosophical Disquisitions: The Possibility of Historical Evidence for Miracles (Part 3)John Danaherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06761686258507859309noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-54319998899034749632011-05-10T04:27:29.102+01:002011-05-10T04:27:29.102+01:00Ha! Funny how I just came upon this new piece by M...Ha! Funny how I just came upon this new piece by Massimo P. at the Rationally Speaking blog: "Razoring Ockham’s razor"Gatogreensleeveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04422843766695177998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-33855533229264600612011-05-10T04:21:00.530+01:002011-05-10T04:21:00.530+01:00Also, it's not clear that a miracle is actuall...Also, it's not clear that a miracle is actually the more elegant answer anyway, because once you inject (the required parameter of) divine agency into the equation... there's a LOT of inelegance in there.Gatogreensleeveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04422843766695177998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-26485512121359063852011-05-10T04:15:10.741+01:002011-05-10T04:15:10.741+01:00Yeah, I guess there being only one known counter-i...Yeah, I guess there being only one known counter-instance is really the crux, because in science, this is when people set out to replicate and test and create more instances. It's a temporary situation that's pretty unrealistic really. If having to say that incorporating L1 is as simple as it gets, than that's all we can do. <br /><br />IDK, it just seems like parsimony/elegance is too ambiguous of a heuristic to use in such a concrete way. It almost feels like Luck's conceding something just to seem agreeable. Thanks for the reply.Gatogreensleeveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04422843766695177998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-51601983652851998362011-05-06T21:14:28.395+01:002011-05-06T21:14:28.395+01:00There tends always to be a tradeoff between the di...There tends always to be a tradeoff between the different explanatory virtues when we are trying to assess any particular set of data. In the kinds of case alluded to in the article, accuracy (or comprehensiveness) is being traded off against simplicity.<br /><br />You can of course argue that accuracy is more important than simplicity, it's just going to seem, if there is only one known counterinstance to your proposed law or axiom, inelegant.John Danaherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06761686258507859309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-45598008721978597572011-05-06T06:43:28.149+01:002011-05-06T06:43:28.149+01:00I'm having some trouble accepting Luck's a...I'm having some trouble accepting Luck's acceptance of Assertion One (I know others accept it too). I don't understand why L1 wouldn't just be incorporated. It just seems like granting too much weight to parsimony. What am I missing here?Gatogreensleeveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04422843766695177998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-8729486470631916252011-03-23T20:22:07.993+00:002011-03-23T20:22:07.993+00:00Yes, I'm guessing Luck focused on natural agen...Yes, I'm guessing Luck focused on natural agents to make his objection seem even stronger.John Danaherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06761686258507859309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1780806945960886534.post-12776901853991729752011-03-23T17:20:18.183+00:002011-03-23T17:20:18.183+00:00The Devil could be a supernatural agent causing a ...The Devil could be a supernatural agent causing a miracle. Like in "The Devil's Lying Wonders" he could deceive us.Bogdanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15449119709471870254noreply@blogger.com