Q&A: A Mistake in Our Intuition
A Mistake in Our Intuition
Question
Hello. I’m a second-year philosophy student.
I was surprised to see that you wrote that if you received documentation of a case where someone rolled a die and it came up a thousand sixes, and he himself is built in such a way that he doesn’t see anything special about that, then you too would not assume that someone controlled the die and brought about that special result.
That really goes against my intuitions. Is there some fallacy in thinking here?
Answer
I didn’t write that. If it is special in my eyes, that calls for an explanation. The conclusion would be that apparently he or someone else brought it about (that is, the one who brought it about does see something special in it).
Discussion on Answer
And why did it appear before him?
Just as rolls that seem ordinary to us could have appeared before us, rolls that are ordinary relative to the structure of his brain appeared before him.
Because he sent us the documentation, does that mean the phenomenon has a cause?
No. Because he sent it to me, I learned about the phenomenon and infer that it has a cause. If he hadn’t sent it, I wouldn’t know it happened.
But why think it has a cause (according to your explanation in column 144)? After all, when the case occurred it was before someone who does not see anything special in the result.
It was special, except that maybe he didn’t know it. And when it reached me, it is as though it happened before me, and I do know.
So basically, if we knew that in our universe for every sequence there is one creature that sees something special in it—would every sequence we receive make us think someone is responsible for it? How does the fact that there is someone at the end of the world change anything?
How does the fact that the sequence is odd (or special) change anything? The moment there is such a someone at the end of the world, then the sequence that matches him is odd (or special). If not, then not. The existence of someone at the end of the world does not change the conclusions; rather, it indicates that this sequence is odd and calls for explanation. If there were no such person anywhere in the world, but in fact this sequence were special (that is, the product of an intelligent intention to bring it about), then indeed I would not know that. And still it would be true that some intelligence created it.
I really don’t understand where this discussion is going.
“Its appearance before us is an event of objective significance, since we see this result as special and specifically it appeared before us. That calls for explanation.” So if there is another explanation for why it appeared before us (because he sent us documentation), then there’s no reason to be impressed by this match, right?