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Imagine some philosopher answers a question of the form "What is X?". Then a critic points out that, according to this answer, O is not X, but we clearly consider it to be X. It seems that the philosopher's reply can take one of two directions:

  1. "Oh, you're right. My answer is wrong. Back to the desk with me!"
  2. "No, you're wrong. My answer is right. It is simply an error to think that O is X."

I'm looking for a term (or terms) for this dichotomy of approaches. Answer 1 takes our commonsense idea of X for granted, while answer 2 challenges it to change. I, therefore, dabbled with words like "conservative" and "progressive", but it's awkward, and I can't imagine that no one before me coined a word for that. I would also be grateful for pointers towards literature discussing this dichotomy.

(A historical example might be parts of the Popper-Kuhn controversy. Popper answered the question "What is science?". Kuhn pointed out that, according to Popper, normal science is not science, but actually, we consider it to be science. Popper opted for answer 2, called normal scientists people "one ought to be sorry for", and stuck with his demarcation criterion. But many philosophers of science went "back to the desk" and tried to accommodate normal science.)

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  • As Kuhn concluded rightly Popper's demarcation criterion standard is high and most applicable to paradigm level shift of scientific theories, not for everyday admin-like activities of scientists. If it were the only standard, then the title of most scientists are in question... But whenever a scientist proposes a truly new synthetic posteriori theory or law Popper's metaphysical criterion could be invoked to make the judgement. Thus there's no true dichotomy or paradox here, and philosophy certainly is not required to conform to common sense on these metaphysical classification issues... – Double Knot Jul 29 '22 at 20:59

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Objective Confirmation bias.
If that's what you were looking for let me know, if not let me know what you come up with if you arrive at it please

Loop Completion
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