Posted inCulture Philosophy
Pascal’s Pensées, A Tour: I
Since our walk through Summa Contra Gentiles is going so well, why not let's do the same with Pascal's sketchbook on what we can now call Thinking Thursdays. We'll use…
Posted inFun
Shaving Cream & Subscriptions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8ffkDf0ol4 Travel day. Subscriptions Now it almost certain that if the right conditions existed, there would be a clamor among readers, perhaps reaching riot proportions, demanding a new way to…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
We Don’t Know Anything
The Appeal to Authority is not a formal fallacy, but an "informal" one, a fancy way of admitting that arguments in the form of "Because I said so" are often…
Posted inStatistics
A Common, Unfortunate, Avoidable, Devastating Error In Statistics
It's a doozy, this error of ours. So ubiquitous is it that it's hardly noticeable. Yet it is sinking us into scientism and wild overconfidence. Every time it appears, both…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
The True Meaning Of Statistical Models
This came up yesterday (again, as it does often), so I figure one more stab is in order. Because the answer isn't simple, I had to write a lot, which…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
The Rise Of Bayes
Thanks to reader Frank Kristeller we learn that the far left New York Times yesterday ran an article by F.D. Flam praising the rise of Bayesian statistics: The Odds, Continually…
Posted inStatistics
That Innovation Is Negatively Correlated With Religion Study
Quick Quiz O' The Day: What do you get when you marry an abysmal knowledge of history, a sublime narcissism, an ignorance of the nature of evidence, a perverse hatred…
Posted inPhilosophy
The Science-Is-Self-Correcting Fallacy
"You know my theory is true," said the grant-wielding scientist, "Because science is self-correcting." That statement is a fallacy because, of course, even supposing that science is self-correcting, there is…