The law of causality, I believe, like much that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.
Outside view: Consider the sentence
[X], I believe, like much that passes muster among philosophers, is a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm.
there are a number of words that could replace X in that sentence to produce something that would be considered a standard LW position. Are we making a similar mistake, i.e., assuming that just because we don’t yet have a satisfactory theory of X that no such theory can exist?
Still less, though, is it evidence for the presence of X.
Agreed, the evidence for the presence of X is that humans have been talking about it for a long time and seem to mean something.
Especially if the work a theory of X is supposed to do can be done without a theory of X, or turn out not to be necessary in the first place.
Careful, it’s very easy to convince oneself that one doesn’t need a theory of X when one is actually hiding X behind cached thoughts and sneaked in connotations. For example, Russell no doubt believed that he didn’t need a theory of causality to do the work the theory of causality was supposed to do.
there are a number of words that could replace X in that sentence to produce something that would be considered a standard LW position. Are we making a similar mistake, i.e., assuming that just because we don’t yet have a satisfactory theory of X that no such theory can exist?
And many more words that could replace X in the sentence that wouldn’t be a standard position but just aren’t mentioned because only the relatively few differences are even worth commenting on.
Outside view: Consider the sentence
there are a number of words that could replace X in that sentence to produce something that would be considered a standard LW position. Are we making a similar mistake, i.e., assuming that just because we don’t yet have a satisfactory theory of X that no such theory can exist?
Our inability to come up with a plausible-sounding theory of X is not especially strong evidence for the absence of X, agreed.
Still less, though, is it evidence for the presence of X.
Especially if the work a theory of X is supposed to do can be done without a theory of X, or turn out not to be necessary in the first place.
Agreed, the evidence for the presence of X is that humans have been talking about it for a long time and seem to mean something.
Careful, it’s very easy to convince oneself that one doesn’t need a theory of X when one is actually hiding X behind cached thoughts and sneaked in connotations. For example, Russell no doubt believed that he didn’t need a theory of causality to do the work the theory of causality was supposed to do.
Absolutely. If I fail to notice how the work is actually being done, I will likely have all kinds of false beliefs about that work.
And many more words that could replace X in the sentence that wouldn’t be a standard position but just aren’t mentioned because only the relatively few differences are even worth commenting on.