[ExI] The Argumentative Theory of Reasoning

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of Gordon
...

>> Most of the function of any theory is to provide a guide in the search
for evidence.  spike

>That seems a good summary of the argumentative theory of reasoning: we
don't reason to find the truth; we reason with others to defend the theories
we posit, and that's all there is to it.  -gts

Ja, that theory has the ring of truth.  Nowhere will you find more potent
evidence than in the field of fundamental religion theory, which tries to
act as a science.  
 
I can say with confidence we see a lot of this type of reasoning in
engineering.  In the field of controls theory, there are competing ways of
calculating stability (Butterworth quaternion camp vs Kalman filter camp for
instance) that soon come to sound like passionate followers of the shoe vs
the gourd.  It isn't so mysterious in the engineering example I gave.  It
takes years to master these techniques, so most of the time, a controls guy
learns one or the other but not both.  

I fear we may find some areas of science are uncomfortably close to
religion.

 spike