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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Stuart, I think you conflating two distinct senses in which it might be sensible to judge a theory by "applying it to itself". It seems sensible that theories not be required to justify themselves, as your examples attest. But it also seems sensible to require that they not be inconsistent with themselves, which is what Leiter's on about.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I don't believe checking whether a philosophical theory can be applied to itself is a sensible way to judge it. Most proper theories have quasi-axioms that have to be asserted or taken as true. There is, alas, no inductive proof of the induction hypothesis, yet it underlies all of science.

Conversely, most theories that do justify themselves (such as Freudian analysis, which comes complete with a full justification as to why people do or don't believe it) are very highly suspect.

The philosophical theory "every affirmation I utter is true" is certainly consistent with itself; but I can't avoid feeling that it is somewhat lacking in the credibility department.

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