”Induction” under Objectivist Epistemology - Part 1
This is in response to a paper by Objectivist scholar Thomas Miovas Jr who operates a website about Objectivism here: https://www.appliedphilosophyonline.com. The relevant paper can be found here:
In this episode I discuss induction broadly speaking, the objectivist usage of the term and Thomas Miovas attempts to salvage the word despite noticing issues with it as it is typically formulated. This leads to a comparison between Rand's style of philosophy - especially epistemology and it's tendency towards abstractions and Karl Popper's far more practical and concrete problem centred approach. Herein I look at how theory-laden any observation is - like simply observing how the sky can be blue. What does "The sky is blue" mean? Is there a sky? Is the air blue? What is scattering? Popper's vision of how knowledge is constructed accounts for this complex notion of our minds coming to solve such problems: Rand's on the other hand is left grappling with why we do not "observe the facts of reality" as she, and other objectivists such as Thomas Miovas, claim we can. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka99vGRfhgM
This is part 1 of part 4 (if you take my meaning) of my "Things that make you go mmmmm?" series. It's called "Minds" and when recording I was unable to anticipate how long it would go for - so I've needed to split it into 2 parts. This is the first.
I discuss what a mind might be, and what intelligence could be thought of as. What, then, is super intelligence? What is supernaturalism? What is creativity? What is the moral status of a person? What are the hazards of guessing at the problems our descendants will have? What are the moral dangers of a false epistemology? Is "super intelligent" and "super unintelligent" a strict contradiction? Does Google plan on test driving their self-driving cars? Yes: all this is discussed and more - hopefully in a fun way.
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCInMX7xj7g
I refer to three other articles I have written related to this piece:
1. "Free Will, Consciousness, Creativity, Explanations, Knowledge and Choice" - https://www.bretthall.org/free-will-consciousness-creativity-explanations-knowledge-and-choice.html
2. Humans and Other Animals: https://www.bretthall.org/humans-and-other-animals.html
3. The idea we have thoughts but are not identical to any particular thought or even set of thoughts: https://www.bretthall.org/critically-creative-3.html
The article/script related to this piece can be found here: https://www.bretthall.org/creativity-and-consciousness.html
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrjY4fR-qMU
Commentary (and Explainer)
This video is largely an op-ed about the "feminisation" of Western militaries and the effect of so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" ideologies on modern defence forces. I look at what the purpose of a military is and the tension between its aims and the ways some arms of some defence forces are "marketing" themselves to their own people. Of chief concern to some has been the way the US army has chosen to attempt to recruit people into its ranks here:
1. https://youtu.be/MIYGFSONKbk?si=C8mFqnObEburxXqz
2. A recent article from Australian media about coercion of "LGBTQIA+" ideologies on cadets: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-27/adf-academy-cadets-claim-they-were-pressured-to-remove-uniforms/102780562
3. US Marine corps recruitment ad for comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9gTAjbiQEM
4. Humorous Aussie analysis of US vs Russian & Chinese army recruitment commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXmyWdZfdgk
5. Ex-Marine comments on US Military Matters (Jameson's Travels) - https://www.youtube.com/@UC-N44TadAniwC7v8Zj858nQ
"Like" my video and "subscribe" to my channel :)
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4NA-PkOLs
This video and associated podcast are about Steven Pinker's new book "Rationality". I read a small number of brief excerpts from the book itself, alongside commenting, criticising and reviewing the content of the first two chapters. I compare Pinker's vision of rationality with what might be interpreted about that same topic from the work of David Deutsch and Karl Popper.
In summary: I found the book highly entertaining in places and an excellent overview of this topic as it might be taught in an Ivy League University in The United States (indeed Pinker says that such a course that he taught was part of the impetus for the book). In terms of being a good substitute for those who might never have been able to afford due to chance, location or cost actually attending such an institution and taking on a course such as one on "Critical Thinking" and "Rationality" the book could readily serve as a series of well written university lecture notes. To that end, it is certainly worth the cost for anyone interested in these topics.
In Chapter 2, Professor Pinker not only agrees with the "justified true belief" conception of knowledge but uses it in practise to explain what might be called the "rational" and "irrational". I thus spend a good portion of the second half of this video suggesting ways in which that very conception of knowledge itself leads to irrationality and explain a better way of understanding concepts like "knowledge" as compared to "belief" and how to understand the phrase "I know".
I intend to cover 2 chapters per episode.
00:00 Introduction
03:30 “Enlightenment Now” and praise for "The Beginning of Infinity".
07:50 Timeless errors, timely examples.
13:05 “Rationality” in “The Beginning of Infinity” sense.
17:15 Do ancient-type tribal people have a “scientific mindset”?
25:00 Explanatory Universality & Anti-rational memes
34:34 Skill with logic puzzles and *being* logical/rational
42:00 The Wason Selection task
51:25 The Monty Hall Problem
1:02:50 The Linda Problem (& remarks on uses and misuses of probability)
1:11:42 Popper and theory laden observations
1:14:20 Knowledge as Justified True Belief - Why Popper matters
1:27:00 Objective truth
1:32:30 Reason is fun
1:38:18 Closing remarks about chapter 2
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_oEZMAtREQ
This contains material drawn from David Deutsch’s Lecture “The Mathematicians Misconception” And Chapter 10 of The Fabric of Reality “The Nature of Mathematics” See here for the Dirac Medal Award Ceremony https://youtu.be/J7HeDX_7Heg If you would like to support this endeavor, do consider making a one off donation by clicking the “Donate” button on the front page of www.bretthall.org
or you may “subscribe” (contribute automatically each month) - at https://patreon.com/BrettRHall
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnH5bSVUwtM
It's true!
The eleventh in a series of shorts reflecting on David Deutsch's paper "The Philosophy of Constructor Theory" published here https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-013-0279-z and available in full here: https://www.constructortheory.org/portfolio/the-philosophy-of-constructor-theory/ #physics #knowledge #philosophy #epistemology #daviddeutsch #science
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVYHEl6BvIY