Quote:
Originally posted by David91
There is an example, much beloved by those who write introductory books to Statistics. It shows a direct correllation over time between the rise and fall of sunspot activity and the hem lengths of ladies skirts. You talk as if the concepts "rightness" or "correctness" are somehow absolutes and relevant to our activity in this place. Most philosophers would say that "rightness" is at best relative or culturally normative and, in this place, we have probably defeated the rationale of its existence because our disagreement seems to have driven away the one person we were supposed to be helping. So my sincere apologies are due to sneekee_d.
I have never been afraid to offer up my own pretence of knowledge for comment and criticism because that is the way I take responsibility for who I am. Simply claiming to be "right" or offering one example of a successful outcome with no satisfactory explanation of context or methodology is never enough. To earn respect from your peers you have to offer a full and proper explanation. In default, why should we think that your success was anything more than blind luck or the result of sunspot activity? When I gently asked for the opportunity to learn from you, all you offered was a discourteous rebuff. Perhaps when you grow older and more confident in your knowledge, you will become more consensual. As it is, your aggressive unilateralism seems to me unhelpful in a place where helpfulness is supposed to be the prime virtue. |
At the beginning of your post you make an allusion to correlation not equating to causation...then later in what is a blatant attempt at a pseudo-intellectual flame make a reference to sun spot activity resulting in my result...that is a causal attribution...idiot!
You also throw around the concept of philosophy as if there is a philosophy of what is right and how to act... speaking form a 'philosophical' standpoint and yet talking in truisms...where is the rational argument and methodology you call for yourself? I suppose you found out about philosophy in an introductory philosophy text...
Oh and the whole intellectual flame thing goes to pieces when you take such a gauche swing at my maturity: surely you should be able to note the hypocrisy in attributing maturity and logical replies to age.
BTW, you might notice that sneekee_d is still here but the messages of are being over-shadowed by a certain conflict of interest. Then again, I'm still waiting for sneekee_d to actually try out a few suggestions.
Oh, and lets just say for a second that my "success was (nothing) more than blind luck", what the hell would that matter, someone has a problem and they want to fix it... I am sure sneekee_d would be more interested in a working copy of Limewire than a run down on how Java works and what install does what.