The eight-hundred-word blog post deserves, I think, special praise, for three distinct reasons: (1.) Short, fat, tangled arguments. In her 2015 Dewey lecture at the Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, philosopher of science Nancy Cartwright celebrated what she called stocky, tangled” arguments over skinny” arguments. “short, “tall, Here’s a tall, skinny, neat argument: A A B → B C → C D → D E → E F → F G → G H → H I → I J _ → Therefore, J. (Whew!) And here’s a short, fat, tangled argument: A1 A2 A3 A1 B _ A2 B A1 A3 → → → Therefore, B. A2 A1 A3 A2 → → Therefore, B. A3 B ___ → Therefore, B.
The eight-hundred-word blog post deserves, I think, special praise, for three distinct reasons: (1.) Short, fat, tangled arguments. In her 2015 Dewey lecture at the Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, philosopher of science Nancy Cartwright celebrated what she called “short, stocky, tangled” arguments over “tall, skinny” arguments. Here’s a tall, skinny, neat argument: A A → B B → C C → D D → E E → F F → G G → H H → I I → J _ Therefore, J. (Whew!) And here’s a short, fat, tangled argument: A1 A2 A3 A1 → B _ A2 → B A1 → A3 Therefore, B. A2 → A1 A3 → A2 Therefore, B. A3 → B ___ Therefore, B.
SplinteredMind-180724a.docx