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Logical conclusions are only as valid as your model. Whenever I see people praising their own logic, I hear "My axioms are so perfect that I'm not capable of questioning them, or even knowing what they are."


Absolutely. These folks always remind me of Robert Brandom's* idea of "formal logical inference" vs. "material logical inference." The former focuses only on the formal structure of an argument where the latter takes into account context and other variables.*

* I don't know if the idea originated with Brandom. * Please, forgive the crude (partially wrong?) explanation.


And it's surprisingly easy to find axioms that lead to your favorite conclusion.




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