Question:
How do we make sure that once we've gotten to the gray pentagon (to stick with this example), we don't throw out points of evidence that no longer fit our theory?
It's incredibly tempting to say, "Well, we already have a pentagon, so this dot on the far left must just not fit our theory."
I guess the question is how do we balance the use of Occam's Razor with our own confirmation bias?
Everything needs to be taken into account. So either it needs to be incorporated into the theory, or we need to figure out why it doesn't. Usually because it's a part of something else, or something bigger.
I think that's what he he was asking. How to tell if it is or not.
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· 7 years ago
This is where you present your theory to peer review. Science basically is not "This is how it is" - but "Have a look at it and try to prove me wrong please".
no theory is built on just 5 data points though. Evolution, for example, has literally trillions of data points.... so it would give you something that is 99.99999999999% the same as the circle.
How do we make sure that once we've gotten to the gray pentagon (to stick with this example), we don't throw out points of evidence that no longer fit our theory?
It's incredibly tempting to say, "Well, we already have a pentagon, so this dot on the far left must just not fit our theory."
I guess the question is how do we balance the use of Occam's Razor with our own confirmation bias?