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PlatoIsADiseaseyesterday at 11:40 PM3 repliesview on HN

As someone who reads epistemology for fun. Its so much worse than you know.

Everything is basically a theory only judged on predictive capabilities. Even the idea that Earth is not at the center of the solar system is a judgement call of what we define as the solar system and center.

The math is simpler sure, but its arbitrary how we define our systems.


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sdwrtoday at 12:05 AM

I remember a lot of pop sci being centered around "elegance", looking for simple models that are broadly predictive. Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Darwin. Feels like people are leaning the other way now, and seeing reality as messy, uncertain, and multifaceted.

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Atlas667today at 1:02 AM

Just cause knowledge can be reduced to predictive capabilities and judgement calls does not mean systems are defined arbitrarily. Everything is defined as to its relative function in/to society and our material endeavors and the social forces that limit or expand on areas of these systems.

First we have to live. That has implications; it's the base for all knowledge.

Knowledge is developing all the time and can be uncertain, sure, but the foundations aren't arbitrary.

You are doing an idealism.

lotsofpulpyesterday at 11:51 PM

You lost me with your example. What could the word center mean if the thing that all the other things orbit around in the solar system is not referred to as being in the center?

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