#74 - Disagreeing about Belief, Probability, and Truth (w/ David Deutsch)

Increments

What do you do when one of your intellectual idols comes on the podcast? Bombard them disagreements of course. We were thrilled to have David Deutsch on the podcast to discuss whether the concept of belief is a useful lens on human cognition, when probability and statistics should be deployed, and whether he disagrees with Karl Popper on abstractions, the truth, and nothing but the truth.

Follow David on Twitter (@DavidDeutschOxf) or find his website here.

We discuss

• Whether belief is a fruitful lens through which to analyze ideas
• Whether a non-quantitative form of belief can be defended
• How does belief bottom out epistemologically?
• Whether statistics and probability are useful
• Where should statistics and probability be used in practice?
• The Popper-Miller theorem
• Statements vs propositions and their relevance for truth
• Whether Popper and Deutsch disagree about truth

References

• The Popper-Miller theorem. See the original paper
• David's 2021 talk on the correspondence theory of truth
• David's talk on physics without probability.
• Hempel's paradox
• The Beginning of Infinity
• Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem

Socials

• Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani, @DavidDeutschOxf
• Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link
• Believe in us and get exclusive bonus content by becoming a patreon subscriber here. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations here.
• Click dem like buttons on youtube

What's the truth about your belief on the probability of useful statistics? Tell us over at [e-mail].

Special Guest: David Deutsch.

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