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Category Archives: Truth
Trump’s toupee
Gawker’s Ashley Feinberg did some digging and was able to trace the origins of Donald’s Trump’s meticulous hairdo. It’s a toupee! According to Ms Feinberg, Trump’s toupee is based on “a little-known, patented hair restoration treatment [pictured below] called a … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Deception, Questions Rarely Asked, Science, Truth
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The Bayesian solution to the preface paradox
In our previous post, we presented Kenny Easwaran’s vivid description of the paradox of the preface. Briefly, the paradox is this: when a scholar writes up an academic paper, he would like to believe that every claim or proposition in … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Truth
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The Paradox of the Preface
Kenny Easwaran, a philosopher at Texas A&M, recently published in the journal Nous this beautiful paper on Bayesian probabilities (hat tip: Brian Leiter). Among other things, Easwaran’s paper contains the best and most succinct explanation of the “paradox of the … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Paradoxes, Philosophy, Truth
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The Greatest of All-Time
In addition to the video below of Muhammad Ali’s greatest moments in the ring, we want to share this loving memory of Ali by our friend and colleague, the poet/writer Luanne Castle. Here is an excerpt: When I was a little … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, History, Truth
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Daniel Dennett’s four rules
We recently stumbled upon this short post by Maria Popova (“How to criticize with kindness”) explaining philosopher Daniel Dennett’s “four rules” of fair-minded, scholarly criticism. In brief, before you begin to refute or criticize someone else’s ideas, you should do … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Bayesian Reasoning, Cooperation, Philosophy, Truth
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May Day
Markets or diktats? Our friend and colleague Ilya Somin recently reiterated his call for repurposing May 1st as “International Victims of Communism Day.” We want to be the first to second his modest proposal …
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Current Affairs, History, Truth
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True or False?
"Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know." ~Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) pic.twitter.com/la7cjUQjsJ — Cliff Pickover (@pickover) November 24, 2015
Posted in Philosophy, Science, Truth
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Cuba libre?
Our Cuba was an imperial Spanish colony until 1898 and a prosperous quasi-colony of the United States until 1959. Now, it’s an impoverished military dictatorship. When will our Cuba be free? (Image of the “Cuba Libre board game” below courtesy of … Continue reading
לעולם לא לשכוח
Addendum (Jan. 28): In his blog post “My Visit to Auschwitz,” our friend Tyler Cowen writes, “Each journey that we take has a single place and experience at its emotional center, and no trek with a stop in Auschwitz can … Continue reading
prior probability 