Philosopher of mind & science. Author, The Myth of the Closed Mind. Fellow, Conjecture Institute. Critical rationalism, AI, liberty, theatrical philosophy.
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Joined December 2013
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Ray Scott Percival retweeted
"...authoritarian ideologies...can be toppled by argument alone.
All systems of ideas are vulnerable."
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Something exciting is happening in critical rationalism!
Meet the sensational team at the Conjecture Institute—fired up by ideas, criticism, discovery, and the endless adventure of growing human knowledge.
The Enlightenment is alive and kicking!
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
It does not matter in the least where a theory ‘comes from’.
What does matter is how that theory can be tested, and what would lead us to abandon it.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Can AI be genuinely creative without creating a new framework?
In my Conjecture Con Philadelphia talk I propose a fundamental distinction between originative and ramificatory creativity.
Originative creativity transforms the framework of problems. Ramificatory creativity explores the still-unfathomed infinite possibilities and consequences of inherited structures.
My stronger claim: present AI creativity is exclusively ramificatory.
Working within an inherited framework need not be non-creative. But genuinely transforming that framework is another kind of creativity.
youtu.be/Ey2P78ovQf8?si=9Wd3…
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
That problem that I fell in love with was the life and death of ideas in society.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival at @conconeurope
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
Critical rationalism is the view that truth, or closeness to the truth, and not justification is our aim.
Our theories are unjustified and forever unjustifiable children of the imagination, against which we ought to marshal our best criticisms in the hope that those that survive will be at least closer to the truth.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
The Enlightenment is not only about the growth of knowledge in science and society.
It is also about what we may become when we refuse to treat ourselves as finished.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
The theories that we create have infinitely more content than we will ever know.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Francis Bacon praised aphorisms over systems: isolate the thought and interrogate it.
Marlowe had reservations.
“A philosophy ought to make life easy for the detective trying to topple it or pin a charge on it.”
Show the connections. That’s where criticism gets a purchase.
Hilary Cremin has some serious reservations about Western progress.
Marlowe has some serious reservations about her watch.
Hilary Cremin’s Apple Watch and the Enlightenment
New from The Marlowe Series.
A little news for Zero-Absolute Ice-Cream: my philosophical jazz-film experiment has now been entered into competition. 🎬😎
The idea behind it: instead of merely writing about philosophical problems, why not stage them?
In this case, empiricism finds itself selling ice cream on Jupiter.
“There’s nowhere to land on Jupiter.”
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
...there’s no such thing as a closed mind—or if there is, it’s very rare, and cannot prevent ideas from being changed under the impact of criticism.
~Conjecture Institute Fellow @Ray_S_Percival
Is there any useful difference between knowledge and true belief?
I argue that, for practical and theoretical purposes, there is not. Plato’s attempt in the Meno to “tether” true belief set philosophy off on a long wild-goose chase.
The argument matters in its own right: it undermines justificationism. I am developing the fuller case in a major paper.
🎵 The Road to Larissa is available on Bandcamp.
Part of the Philosophical Jazz series.
Ray Scott Percival retweeted
The in-person Q&A with @DavidDeutschOxf from the latest Conjecture Conference Oxford will be premiering in 15 minutes!
Watch it here: youtube.com/watch?v=YGeNzpZ5…
If Cults Brainwash People, Why Do So Many Leave?
Explore further in The Myth of the Closed Mind: Understanding Why and How People Are Rational.