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Full Idea
If the only objective constraints concern how we should change our credences, but what our initial credences should be is entirely subjective, then individuals with very bizarre opinions about the world will count as perfectly rational.
Gist of Idea
If the rules only concern changes of belief, and not the starting point, absurd views can look ratiional
Source
Samir Okasha (Philosophy of Science: Very Short Intro (2nd ed) [2016], 2)
Book Ref
Okasha,Samir: 'Philosophy of Science: very short intro (2nd ed)' [OUP 2016], p.35
A Reaction
The important rationality has to be the assessement of a diverse batch of evidence, for which there can never be any rules or mathematics.
| 22172 | Not all sciences are experimental; astronomy relies on careful observation [Okasha] |
| 22174 | The discoverers of Neptune didn't change their theory because of an anomaly [Okasha] |
| 22175 | Science mostly aims at confirming theories, rather than falsifying them [Okasha] |
| 22177 | Randomised Control Trials have a treatment and a control group, chosen at random [Okasha] |
| 22176 | Induction is inferences from examined to unexamined instances of a given kind [Okasha] |
| 22178 | If the rules only concern changes of belief, and not the starting point, absurd views can look ratiional [Okasha] |
| 22173 | Galileo refuted the Aristotelian theory that heavier objects fall faster [Okasha] |
| 22180 | Multiple realisability is said to make reduction impossible [Okasha] |
| 22182 | Theories with unobservables are underdetermined by the evidence [Okasha] |
| 22185 | Two things can't be incompatible if they are incommensurable [Okasha] |