News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why read old philosophy? by mannykannot on Sunday January 08, 2017 @03:57PM (#13351967)
I did not downvote you (I have no time for people who downvote without explanation), but I do think that philosophical 'experiments' are not at all like science experiments, and the salient difference is precisely the lack of an empirical arbiter. Your second paragraph is a good argument for that point.

One consequence is that philosophical experiments rarely reach a conclusion (except when science does catch up, as will probably happen over consciousness, for example.) I have come to realize that reaching a conclusion is not the point; the discussion is the point.

Re:Why read old philosophy? by woodruffw on Sunday January 08, 2017 @04:42PM (#13352198)
I think the point of the empirical arbiter is an interesting one. My second paragraph can indeed be used as an argument for the absence of one in philosophy.

But where is such an arbiter in science? After all, science is inductive, not deductive. It can give you lots of good reasons and evidence to believe a theory, but the principle of falsifiability requires that a counterexample must plausibly exist.

If either philosophical or scientific experiments were to reach an unfalsifiable conclusion, I think we would have a serious problem on our hands.