#epistemology #metaphysical # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought # Related # The value of metaphysical statements >That your strength as a rationalist is your ability to be more confused by fiction than by reality, >~ [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] >I do not even go so far as to assert that metaphysics has no value for empirical science. **For it cannot be denied that along with metaphysical ideas which have obstructed the advance of science there have been others-such as speculative atomism-which have aided it**. And looking at the matter from the angle, I am inclined to think that scientific discovery is impossible without faith in ideas which are of a purely speculative kind, and sometimes even quite hazy; a faith which is completely unwarranted from the point of view of science, and which, to psychological that extent, is 'metaphysical'. >~ [[Karl Popper]] I do not believe that all [[Metaphysical|metaphysical]] can be considered as useless for the discovery of scientific [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] or any form of knowledge, I even believe that some ideas of what we call "spiritual" can lead to rational heuristics. >From Thales to Einstein, from ancient atomism to Descartes’s speculation about matter, from the speculations of Gilbert and Newton and Leibniz and Boscovic about forces to those of Faraday and Einstein about fields of forces, **metaphysical ideas have shown the way**. >~ [[Karl Popper]] ![[Pasted image 20220712134448.png]] I've always been surprised by people arguing theories "there is nothing concrete", but you can't write the mathematical equation of relativity directly before philosophising and doing [[Thought experiment]]s. ## Art, painting, poetry & music as metaphysical statements ![[DALL·E 2022-07-12 21.34.53 - A group of men visiting a museum, the paintings on the wall display mathematical formulas, painting by Escher.png]] When you go to a museum, say, Monet or Van Gogh, I'm pretty sure it can give you scientific ideas. Actually the painter Escher influenced [[Roger Penrose]] in his mathematical inquiries[^1]. ![[DALL·E 2022-07-12 21.34.28 - A group of men visiting a museum, the paintings on the wall display mathematical formulas, painting by Escher.png]] ## The danger of metaphysical statements On the other hand I still believe we should be, roughly, 80% of the time scientific, and much less metaphysical. ![[Pasted image 20220712135107.png]] There is way too many metaphysical opportunities, probably it can be explained from an evolutionary psychology thinking, but It's much harder to draw into the scientific space, it is so easy to jump on metaphysical ideas, and metaphysical ideas cannot alone draw the [[The Map is not the Territory|map of the territory]] ![[Pasted image 20220712135438.png]] # External links [^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher#Mathematically_inspired_work