Took me a minute to find the quote I was thinking of

Quote:

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the Intellectual is someone who meddles in what does not concern them.

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Jean Paul Sartre

Again, what I, and likely Sartre, are referring to here is the politically motivated intellectual.

Nothing wrong with deep thinking, my man. Just don't expect me to vote for you anytime soon .

I wouldn't vote for me either. Our politicians should be people who are experts on human affairs. Boring things like economics, civics, sociology, history, foreign affairs, etc.

Humans are too complicated. Science is much simpler and more interesting. I'll stick to that.

I would say that philosophy concerns me the exact same amount as anyone else.

Silent For Too Long said:

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Dilettante said:

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I'd rather know a useless truth than a useful delusion.

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Why?

I view that as an extremely privileged position to take. You are insulated by such a comfortable life you can extend energy into navel gazing.

Those "useful delusions" you so casually dismis save millions of people's lives everyday. People struggling from real things, like addiction and mental illness, finding real solutions that profoundly correct their paths in life.

Someday you will be in need of a life preserver, and won't have the luxury of questioning its epistemic validity.

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Also depending on how narrowly you are defining truth, you've just included all of science. Double it for engineering. Every model in science is wrong and some are useful. The models I use to design buildings every day can be disproved with trivial ease.

What ever truth there is with regard to the workings of the universe may be so horrifically complex that our hairless ape brain can't make heads or tails of it. I'd rather know a useful model and be able to actually accomplish things.

For me I generally regard science as the closest thing we get to know is true so I just call it true so I can ever use the Word outside of axioms and math

Have you read Quine's Two Dogmas of Empiricism? You should.

Nope. I'll do that.