Of course for the simplification to actually help in understanding reality, it must be chosen intentionally for that purpose and not simply for the purpose of confirming a predisposition. In my blog post, "Fallacy vs. Fallacy," I look at an instance where researchers have performed a "simplification" that isn't useful for understanding reality (I explain why) but that gives them an elevated and illusory sense of certainty about the meaning of their results.
http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.ca/2014/01/fallacy-vs-fallacy.html On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 7:49 PM, Gar Lipow <[email protected]> wrote: > I mentioned that too when you first started exposing the fallacy of the > belief that it was a widespread fallacy. Counterfactual > oversimplifications can often be useful in understanding reality. Engineers > uses calculations assuming perfect elasticity or what have you on occasion, > then do corrections. I suspect that the lump-of-labor is a useful > approximation in a lot cases. > > > On Wed, Jan 22, 2014 at 3:42 PM, Tom Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Ryan Avent at the Economist: >> >> "It may be reading too much into recent experience, but one could also >> argue that under certain constraints the lump of labour fallacy is no >> fallacy at all. " >> >> http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/01/labour-markets >> >> Cheers, >> >> Tom Walker (Sandwichman) >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> >> > > > -- > Facebook: Gar Lipow Twitter: GarLipow > Solving the Climate Crisis web page: SolvingTheClimateCrisis.com > Grist Blog: http://grist.org/author/gar-lipow/ > Online technical reference: http://www.nohairshirts.com > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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