Re:The mathematics of science’s broken reward system
by hammock on Friday November 18, 2016 @01:50PM
(#12989106)
I agree with everything except your last paragraph. You're mostly on track with what I'm talking about. There are plenty of people who throw a bunch of bullshit into a "grand-sounding theory." And on the other hand, just because something isn't backed by a mathematical theorem, doesn't mean it isn't true, or useful!
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:The mathematics of science’s broken reward system
by infinity0 on Wednesday November 23, 2016 @01:09PM
(#13024453)
Agreed that unproven does not imply false, and there is a tendency for people purporting to be "skeptics" to make this fallacy. There's even a name for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_fallacy
However, it's too easy for bullshit-artists to hide behind this, as a way to deflect criticism of the theories that they're proposing, or the general area of work that they've chosen to pursue.
We're all human so it's perfectly reasonable to believe in something that's unproven - but then be honest about it, and explore the topic from a critical viewpoint without getting personally defensive. Unfortunately I see many more cases of this, than instances of the fallacy-fallacy.