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sonusario | 5 years ago

What about "parsimony in explaining the available data" indicates that it is irreducible though?

discuss

order

naasking|5 years ago

Every theory posits some axioms. These are irreducible by definition.

The challenge is choosing which axiomatic basis we ought to prefer given our incomplete information. This is answered by induction [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomonoff%27s_theory_of_induc...

david_w|5 years ago

What you're describing is "the best way to do science, so we can make some progress". That's all well and good but what other people are talking about is the nature of reality which, in pursuit of, those crazy people, they are perfectly willing to doubt axioms.

As well they should and as is their right since a set of axioms are effectively ground facts which are selected to make logical reasoning across a domain possible, nothing more.

That doesn't make them true in the big sense of True, it makes them expedient, productive of theory, generative, a lot of wonderful things, maybe even strongly implied by all evidence, but not apriori true. They're dubitable.

sonusario|5 years ago

So, is this to say we approach the irreducible best with induction?