The Artificial Limits of Theory

Before we know, before we solve the problem, we don't know whether it can be solved. So this example of the island is a little bit artificial in that sense. If you're trying to disprove a principle that's derived from reality as it is and then assert that, well, if reality really wasn't like that, then would what you're saying be true? Well, you could do that endlessly. In some sense, that's a content of the theory. It's like our world is not like Harris's example. Logically it could have been, but it's a bad explanation. The dichotomy resides in the difference between this artificial world and the real world with its