Meta | Sambit

Epistemology & Ontology

🌿 Bayesian Epistemology: Probability as degree of belief and epistemic uncertainty, not objective frequency in the world
🌿 Critical Realism: Reality exists in stratified layers independent of our knowledge of it
🌳 Neurath's Boat: We cannot rebuild our ship from scratch — only repair it plank by plank while afloat
🌿 Residual Reality: Reality is always larger than any representation we construct of it

🌿 Explanatory Depth: Good explanations cite difference-making causes at the right level of abstraction
🌿 Hard to Vary Explanation: Explanations that cannot be easily modified to account for anything

🌱 Immersion Abstraction Loop: Earn your abstractions: immerse until proposals are warranted, not just compatible
🌿 Inventor's Paradox: Solving more general problems often yields more specific solutions
🌿 OODA Loop: Iterative decision-making cycle through observing, orienting, deciding, and acting
🌿 Pólya's Problem-Solving: Structured approach to problem-solving through understanding, planning, executing, and reflecting
🌿 Social Science Paradox: Deep investigation of specific cases enables broader generalizable claims

🌿 Functionalism: Mental states are defined by their functional roles, not their physical implementation
🌿 Intentionality: Mental states are about or directed toward objects and states of affairs
🌿 Strange Loop: Self-reference and hierarchical feedback loops that give rise to consciousness and selfhood

🌿 Methodological Holism: Social wholes have properties not reducible to or predictable from individual parts
🌿 Methodological Individualism: Social phenomena must be explained by the actions and interactions of individuals
🌿 Social Facts: Social phenomena that exist independently of individuals and constrain their behavior
🌿 Thick Description: Rich interpretive description that captures cultural meaning and context, not just observable behavior

🌿 Computationalism: Cognition as symbolic computation over mental representations in the brain
🌿 Embodied Cognition: Cognition is shaped by the body and its sensorimotor interactions with the environment
🌿 Extended Mind: Cognitive processes extend beyond the brain into the body and environment
🌿 Predictive Processing: The brain as a prediction machine that minimizes surprise through hierarchical inference