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The Jorge against scientism

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  • #91
    Oh, the warning sound ("chirp chirp") in some commercial aircraft. I'm still puzzled.
    The greater number of laws . . . , the more thieves . . . there will be. ---- Lao-Tzu

    [T]he truth I’m after and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance -— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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    • #92
      I don't know if Mr Spock ever explained how he made decisions. But it does seem that he used pure reason or logic. Anyway, I suspect some people think, albeit vaguely, decisions can be used using nothing but formal deductive logic, as if all of one's premises are true.

      Let's consider the question of whether it is possible to use pure reason or logic that way, but not assuming that all premises believed or assumed to be true are indeed true. My short answer is no. That conclusion is based on my introspection of my decision-making process.

      A longer answer is based on the observation, already alluded to in previous posts, that when one makes a decision, that is not because he, using pure logic or reason, has succeeded in eliminating every putative decision but one. Consider that the decision to continue one's course of action is always one that can't be eliminated [now it may be true that an instant always exists between a previous course of action and its successor (a new course of action), but it seems to be a quibble].

      In conclusion, again, reason or logic can be used to eliminate putative courses of action that appear to be open, but the number of putative courses of action to consider is always greater than one, except just after a new course of action is decided.

      So, how do we make decisions at all? After introspection, the answer seems to be, again, I have an autonomous decision-making mechanism (perhaps mental) that does like mentally flip a coin.



      This is not to say that emotions do not have any role to play in the decision-making process. However, certainly it does seem as though we usually have to keep a good grip on our emotions so that they don't overwhelm the process, or "run away" with it, as it were.



      Perhaps for next time, could scientists nevertheless gather statistics on human decisions somewhat analogous to that of the single slit experiment? http://www.animations.physics.unsw.e...raction.html#1
      The greater number of laws . . . , the more thieves . . . there will be. ---- Lao-Tzu

      [T]he truth I’m after and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance -— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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