PhilSci Archive

The Anthropocentric Bias of Anthropic Reasoning: A Case of Implicit Dualism

Burock, Marc (2025) The Anthropocentric Bias of Anthropic Reasoning: A Case of Implicit Dualism. [Preprint]

This is the latest version of this item.

[img] Text
Antropocentric_Bias.pdf
Download (1MB)

Abstract

Methodological anthropic reasoning (MAR), popularized by Bostrom ([2002]), aims to correct for observation selection bias by appealing to observer-relative information. I show that MAR's inferential structure is not uniquely tied to observers but applies to any set of entities subject to selection uncertainty. By miscasting a general epistemic problem as uniquely anthropic, MAR obscures its metaphysical assumptions and bypasses established probabilistic methods. Once stripped of its observer-centric framing and functionally reduced, anthropic reasoning collapses into ad hoc inference—forcing a choice: either acknowledge the metaphysical specialness of observers or concede there is no reason to privilege one physical pattern over another.

Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |
Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Burock, Marcburocksmail@gmail.com
Keywords: Anthropic Bias, Anthropic Reasoning, Self-Location, Probability Puzzles, Anthropic Principle, Length-Bias Sampling
Subjects: General Issues > Evidence
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Depositing User: Marc Burock
Date Deposited: 12 Jun 2025 12:41
Last Modified: 12 Jun 2025 12:41
Item ID: 25655
Subjects: General Issues > Evidence
Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics
General Issues > Thought Experiments
Date: 9 June 2025
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/25655

Available Versions of this Item

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item