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A comment on 80% of People Quietly Despise Their Lives. Parent comment

Re:80% of People Quietly Despise Their Lives by telemachos on Monday September 12, 2011 @09:15AM (#2987118)
Well, first, there might be some things about human psychology that we can figure out a priori. Notice I said "might". I don't think it's obvious that we should rule out the possibility, at the very least.

More generally, it's just not true that all scientific work (including physics) is done completely by means of empirical research. See Wikipedia's entry on "Thought experiment" for some good cases[1].

I'm not arguing for or against this particular bit of Nietzsche, but I think HN sometimes overvalues empirical or statistical study above all else.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_experiment

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Re:80% of People Quietly Despise Their Lives by onemoreact on Monday September 12, 2011 @11:20AM (#2987575)
That Wiki link needs to be editied. EX:

consequences:In terms of their theoretical consequences, thought experiments generally:

challenge (or even refute) a prevailing theory, often involving the device known as reductio ad absurdum,

Hmm, you could replace device with logical falicy but then it does not say what they thought it did...

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Re:80% of People Quietly Despise Their Lives by BoppreH on Monday September 12, 2011 @12:05PM (#2987775)
Reductio ad absurdum is not necessarily a fallacy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum

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