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From: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Layman's argument for Occam's razor
Message-ID: <106@thirdi.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Aug-87 18:52:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: thirdi.106
Posted: Mon Aug 24 18:52:27 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Aug-87 01:25:18 EDT
References: <433@morgoth.UUCP> <20264@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: sarge@thirdi.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode)
Organization: Institute for Research in Metapsychology
Lines: 25
Keywords: simplicity truth aesthetics
Summary: Pleasure is a sign of the good.

In article <20264@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> kube@cogsci.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Paul Kube) writes:
>
>what reason
>is there now to think that we have evolutionarily honed intuitions
>for detecting correct mathematics, or quantum mechanics, or astrophysics?

Only that it seems to be a psychological fact that we have a kind of "built-in
computer" that operates unconsciously (or maybe we get messages from God, or
whatever).  From this source (or Source) we get hunches and "feelings" about
things.  These hunches and feelings often form the basis for scientific
hypotheses that later turn out to be true.

I don't go along with the radical form of "If it feels good, do it!" that was
mandated in the '60s counter-culture, but I think, as Aristotle did, that
pleasure is a sign of the good (and the true).  Therefore, all else being
equal (and it usually isn't), one should (and does) pick the choice that gives
one pleasure, or, alternatively, that appeals to one aesthetically.
-- 
"Absolute knowledge means never having to change your mind."

Sarge Gerbode
Institute for Research in Metapsychology
950 Guinda St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
UUCP:  pyramid!thirdi!sarge