I agree with Kaj on this point, however I also don’t think you’re intentionally trying to respond to a strawman version of what we’re presenting; what we’re arguing for hinges on what seems to be a subtle point for most people (it doesn’t feel subtle to me but I am empathetic to technical philosophical positions being subtle to other people), so it’s easy to conflate our position with, say, postmodernist-style epistemic relativism, since although it’s drastically different than that it’s different for technical reasons that may not be apparent from reading the broad strokes of what we’re saying.
I suspect what’s going on in this discussion is something like the following: me, Kaj, TAG, and others are coming from a position that relatively small in idea space, but there’s other ideas that sort-of pattern match if you don’t look too close at the details that are getting confused for the point we’re trying to make, and then people respond to these other ideas rather than the one we’re holding. Although we’re trying our best to cut idea space such that you see the part we’re talking about, the process is inexact because although I’ve pointed to it with the technical language of philosophy the technical language of philosophy is easily mistaken for non-technical language since it reused common words (physics sometimes has the same problem: you pick a word because it’s a useful metaphor but give it a technical meaning, and then people misunderstand because they think too much in terms of the metaphor and not in terms of the precise model being referred to by the word) and requires a certain about of fluency with philosophy in general. For example, in all the comments on this post, I think so far only jessicata has asked for clarification in a way that clearly is framed in terms of technical philosophy.
This is not to necessarily demand that you engage with technical philosophy if you don’t want to, but it is I suspect why we continue to have trouble communicating (or if there are other reasons this is a major one). I don’t know a way to explain these points that isn’t in that language and not also easily confused for other ideas I wouldn’t endorse, though, so there may not be much way forward in presenting metarationality to you in a way that I would agree that you understand it and allows you to express a rejection I would consider valid (if indeed such a reason for rejection exists; if I knew one I wouldn’t hold these views!). The only other ways we have of talking about these things tend to rely much more on appeal to intuitions that you don’t seem to share, and transmitting those intuitions is a separate project from what I want to do, although Kaj’s and others’ responses do a much better job than mine of attempting that transmission.
Although we’re trying our best to cut idea space such that you see the part we’re talking about, the process is inexact because although I’ve pointed to it with the technical language of philosophy the technical language of philosophy is easily mistaken for non-technical language since it reused common words
I am sympathetic to this sort of explanation. Could you, then, note specifically which of your terms are supposed to be interpreted at technical language, and link to some definitions / explanations of them? (Can such be found on the SEP, for instance?)
I agree with Kaj on this point, however I also don’t think you’re intentionally trying to respond to a strawman version of what we’re presenting; what we’re arguing for hinges on what seems to be a subtle point for most people (it doesn’t feel subtle to me but I am empathetic to technical philosophical positions being subtle to other people), so it’s easy to conflate our position with, say, postmodernist-style epistemic relativism, since although it’s drastically different than that it’s different for technical reasons that may not be apparent from reading the broad strokes of what we’re saying.
I suspect what’s going on in this discussion is something like the following: me, Kaj, TAG, and others are coming from a position that relatively small in idea space, but there’s other ideas that sort-of pattern match if you don’t look too close at the details that are getting confused for the point we’re trying to make, and then people respond to these other ideas rather than the one we’re holding. Although we’re trying our best to cut idea space such that you see the part we’re talking about, the process is inexact because although I’ve pointed to it with the technical language of philosophy the technical language of philosophy is easily mistaken for non-technical language since it reused common words (physics sometimes has the same problem: you pick a word because it’s a useful metaphor but give it a technical meaning, and then people misunderstand because they think too much in terms of the metaphor and not in terms of the precise model being referred to by the word) and requires a certain about of fluency with philosophy in general. For example, in all the comments on this post, I think so far only jessicata has asked for clarification in a way that clearly is framed in terms of technical philosophy.
This is not to necessarily demand that you engage with technical philosophy if you don’t want to, but it is I suspect why we continue to have trouble communicating (or if there are other reasons this is a major one). I don’t know a way to explain these points that isn’t in that language and not also easily confused for other ideas I wouldn’t endorse, though, so there may not be much way forward in presenting metarationality to you in a way that I would agree that you understand it and allows you to express a rejection I would consider valid (if indeed such a reason for rejection exists; if I knew one I wouldn’t hold these views!). The only other ways we have of talking about these things tend to rely much more on appeal to intuitions that you don’t seem to share, and transmitting those intuitions is a separate project from what I want to do, although Kaj’s and others’ responses do a much better job than mine of attempting that transmission.
I am sympathetic to this sort of explanation. Could you, then, note specifically which of your terms are supposed to be interpreted at technical language, and link to some definitions / explanations of them? (Can such be found on the SEP, for instance?)
Nope, this is explicitly what I wanted to avoid doing, although I note I’ve already been sucked in way deeper into this than I ever meant to be.
But… why would you want to avoid this? (Surely it’s not difficult to post a link?)