lukeprog wrote “philosophers are ‘spectacularly bad’ at understanding that their intuitions are generated by cognitive algorithms.” I am pretty confident that minds are physical/chemical systems, and that intuitions are generated by cognitive algorithms. (Furthermore, many of the alternatives I know of are so bizarre that given that such an alternative is the true reality of my universe, the conditional probability that rationality or philosophy is going to do me any good seems to be low.) But philosophy as often practiced values questioning everything, and so I don’t think it’s quite fair to expect philosophers to “understand” this (which I read in this context as synonymous as “take this for granted”). I’d prefer a formulation like “spectacularly bad at seriously addressing [or, perhaps, even properly understanding] the obvious hypothesis that their intuitions are generated by cognitive algorithms.” It seems to me that the criticism rewritten in this form remains severe.
lukeprog wrote “philosophers are ‘spectacularly bad’ at understanding that their intuitions are generated by cognitive algorithms.” I am pretty confident that minds are physical/chemical systems, and that intuitions are generated by cognitive algorithms. (Furthermore, many of the alternatives I know of are so bizarre that given that such an alternative is the true reality of my universe, the conditional probability that rationality or philosophy is going to do me any good seems to be low.) But philosophy as often practiced values questioning everything, and so I don’t think it’s quite fair to expect philosophers to “understand” this (which I read in this context as synonymous as “take this for granted”). I’d prefer a formulation like “spectacularly bad at seriously addressing [or, perhaps, even properly understanding] the obvious hypothesis that their intuitions are generated by cognitive algorithms.” It seems to me that the criticism rewritten in this form remains severe.
I agree, and I really doubt philosophers fail to deeply question their own intuitions.