This is close, but I don’t think it captures everything. I used the examples of creationism and homeopathy because they are unusual examples where there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement. Every person who believes in one of those does so because of bias, ignorance, or error. This disentangles the question of “what is meant by the statement” and “why would anyone want to say what is meant by the statement”.
You have correctly identified why, for most topics, someone would want to say such a thing. Normally, “there’s no room for reasonable disagreement; you’re just wrong” is indeed used as a tribal membership indicator. But the statement doesn’t mean “what you’re saying is nontribal”, it’s just that legitimate, nontribal, reasons to say “you are just wrong” are rare.
Every person who believes in one of those does so because of bias, ignorance, or error.
Well that’s true for every false belief anyone has. So what’s so special about those examples?
You say “there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement”, which taken literally is just another way of phrasing “I don’t understand how anyone could believe X”. In any case, could you expand on what you mean by “not room for reasonable disagreement” since in context it appears to mean “all the tribes present agree with it”.
Well that’s true for every false belief anyone has. So what’s so special about those examples?
You’re being literal again. Every person who believes in one of those primarily does so because of major bias, ignorance, or error. You can’t just distrust a single source you should have trusted, or make a single bad calculation, and end up believing in creationism or homeopathy. Your belief-finding process has to contain fundamental flaws for that.
You say “there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement”, which taken literally is just another way of phrasing “I don’t understand how anyone could believe X”.
And “it has three sides” is just another way of phrasing “it is a triangle”, but I can still explain what a triangle is by describing it as something with three sides. If it wasn’t synonymous, it wouldn’t be an explanation.
(Actually, it’s not quite synonymous, for the same reason that the original statement wasn’t correct: if you’re taking it literally, “I don’t understand how anyone could believe X” excludes cases where you understand that someone makes a mistake, and “there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement” includes such cases.)
in context it appears to mean “all the tribes present agree with it”.
You can describe anything which is believed by some people and not others in terms of tribes believing it. But not all such descriptions are equally useful; if the tribes fall into categories, it is better to specify the categories.
You can’t just distrust a single source you should have trusted, or make a single bad calculation, and end up believing in creationism or homeopathy.
You don’t even need to do a bad calculation to believe in homeopathy. You just need to be in a social environment where everyone believes in homeopathy and not care enough about the issue to invest more effort into it.
If you simply follow the rule: If I live in a Western country it makes sense to trust the official government health ministry when it publishes information about health issues, you might come away with believing in homeopathy if you happen to live in Switzerland.
There are a lot of decent heuristics that can leave someone with that belief even if the belief is wrong.
This is close, but I don’t think it captures everything. I used the examples of creationism and homeopathy because they are unusual examples where there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement. Every person who believes in one of those does so because of bias, ignorance, or error. This disentangles the question of “what is meant by the statement” and “why would anyone want to say what is meant by the statement”.
You have correctly identified why, for most topics, someone would want to say such a thing. Normally, “there’s no room for reasonable disagreement; you’re just wrong” is indeed used as a tribal membership indicator. But the statement doesn’t mean “what you’re saying is nontribal”, it’s just that legitimate, nontribal, reasons to say “you are just wrong” are rare.
Well that’s true for every false belief anyone has. So what’s so special about those examples?
You say “there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement”, which taken literally is just another way of phrasing “I don’t understand how anyone could believe X”. In any case, could you expand on what you mean by “not room for reasonable disagreement” since in context it appears to mean “all the tribes present agree with it”.
You’re being literal again. Every person who believes in one of those primarily does so because of major bias, ignorance, or error. You can’t just distrust a single source you should have trusted, or make a single bad calculation, and end up believing in creationism or homeopathy. Your belief-finding process has to contain fundamental flaws for that.
And “it has three sides” is just another way of phrasing “it is a triangle”, but I can still explain what a triangle is by describing it as something with three sides. If it wasn’t synonymous, it wouldn’t be an explanation.
(Actually, it’s not quite synonymous, for the same reason that the original statement wasn’t correct: if you’re taking it literally, “I don’t understand how anyone could believe X” excludes cases where you understand that someone makes a mistake, and “there isn’t room for reasonable disagreement” includes such cases.)
You can describe anything which is believed by some people and not others in terms of tribes believing it. But not all such descriptions are equally useful; if the tribes fall into categories, it is better to specify the categories.
You don’t even need to do a bad calculation to believe in homeopathy. You just need to be in a social environment where everyone believes in homeopathy and not care enough about the issue to invest more effort into it.
If you simply follow the rule: If I live in a Western country it makes sense to trust the official government health ministry when it publishes information about health issues, you might come away with believing in homeopathy if you happen to live in Switzerland.
There are a lot of decent heuristics that can leave someone with that belief even if the belief is wrong.
If you’re in a social environment where everyone believes in it, then you have more than just a single source.