I thing the comments of fortyeridania, JonathanLivengood, Peterdjones and others have pretty much nailed matters, but here’s my take:
This post is actually self-undermining. Roughly, it is an argument that a person’s having a background in Pearl and Kahneman will lead to that person’s being able to reason better than if s/he lacked the background, which is in fact (sorry to be blunt, but I think the balance of the comments support this) a quite poor specimen of an argument made by someone who has the background. There’s no evidence that you would have done even worse without the background. So the post is itself some evidence for the falsity of what it claims.
What is the rational value of the abstracts and your one-liners? I understand the point in each case is that the paper is obviously worthless. But this is false: they are indeed obviously not obviously worthless, insofar as they are made by people who are likely almost as smart and well-read as you, and very likely aware of the kinds of criticims you make.
You seem to be conflating questions of philosophical pedagogy with questions of professional practice/methodology.
Concerning the former: can you give an example of a philosophical paper which is mistaken as a result of biases which reading Kahneman as an undergraduate might have prevented, and indicate the mistake? Can you give an example of a philosophical paper which is mistaken as a result of a knowledge gap which reading Pearl might have avoided (written since Pearl published)? Your claim would be strengthened, of course, if the latter example is from the considerable majority of philosophy not specifically about the problem of causation (otherwise you’re getting everyone to read Pearl despite its being apparently relevant only to a small minority). In other words, can you give any empirical evidence at all for your view? (Please don’t say simply that people who understand Kahneman won’t rely on ‘philosophical intuitions’, as that’s plainly false and misrepresents the nature of what dispute there is over intuitions in philosophy)
Concerning the latter: your link is to a paper recommending formal methods in epistemology. Sounds terrific! Does the point extend to other areas of philosophy? As CEO of a philosophy/math/compsci research institute, maybe you’d be willing to set the example by going first. Would be great to see a formal statement of your intended argument here, and even better, formal re-statements of your past posts on philosophical topics.
But this is false: they are indeed obviously not obviously worthless, insofar as they are made by people who are likely almost as smart and well-read as you, and very likely aware of the kinds of criticims you make.
The rest of your post is decent, but this made me scratch my head. What are you trying to say?
I was thinking about this as a problem of so-called social epistemology -specifically, of what a person ought to believe when her or his beliefs contradict someone else’s. It seems obvious to me that -other things being equal- the rational approach to take when encountering someone who appears rational and well-informed and who disagrees with you, is to take seriously that person’s thoughts. Since the abstract authors fit the description, it’s obvious, I think, that what they say deserves at least some consideration -ie, what they say is not obviously worthless (ie., to be dismissed with a one liner).
Is this fair?
I realize the situation is more complicated here, as there’s the question whether a whole discipline has gone off the rails, which I think the OP has convinced himself is the case with philosophy (so, maybe other things aren’t equal). I’ve tried a few times without success to recommend some epistemic humility on this point.
I thing the comments of fortyeridania, JonathanLivengood, Peterdjones and others have pretty much nailed matters, but here’s my take:
This post is actually self-undermining. Roughly, it is an argument that a person’s having a background in Pearl and Kahneman will lead to that person’s being able to reason better than if s/he lacked the background, which is in fact (sorry to be blunt, but I think the balance of the comments support this) a quite poor specimen of an argument made by someone who has the background. There’s no evidence that you would have done even worse without the background. So the post is itself some evidence for the falsity of what it claims.
What is the rational value of the abstracts and your one-liners? I understand the point in each case is that the paper is obviously worthless. But this is false: they are indeed obviously not obviously worthless, insofar as they are made by people who are likely almost as smart and well-read as you, and very likely aware of the kinds of criticims you make.
You seem to be conflating questions of philosophical pedagogy with questions of professional practice/methodology.
Concerning the former: can you give an example of a philosophical paper which is mistaken as a result of biases which reading Kahneman as an undergraduate might have prevented, and indicate the mistake? Can you give an example of a philosophical paper which is mistaken as a result of a knowledge gap which reading Pearl might have avoided (written since Pearl published)? Your claim would be strengthened, of course, if the latter example is from the considerable majority of philosophy not specifically about the problem of causation (otherwise you’re getting everyone to read Pearl despite its being apparently relevant only to a small minority). In other words, can you give any empirical evidence at all for your view? (Please don’t say simply that people who understand Kahneman won’t rely on ‘philosophical intuitions’, as that’s plainly false and misrepresents the nature of what dispute there is over intuitions in philosophy)
Concerning the latter: your link is to a paper recommending formal methods in epistemology. Sounds terrific! Does the point extend to other areas of philosophy? As CEO of a philosophy/math/compsci research institute, maybe you’d be willing to set the example by going first. Would be great to see a formal statement of your intended argument here, and even better, formal re-statements of your past posts on philosophical topics.
The rest of your post is decent, but this made me scratch my head. What are you trying to say?
I was thinking about this as a problem of so-called social epistemology -specifically, of what a person ought to believe when her or his beliefs contradict someone else’s. It seems obvious to me that -other things being equal- the rational approach to take when encountering someone who appears rational and well-informed and who disagrees with you, is to take seriously that person’s thoughts. Since the abstract authors fit the description, it’s obvious, I think, that what they say deserves at least some consideration -ie, what they say is not obviously worthless (ie., to be dismissed with a one liner).
Is this fair?
I realize the situation is more complicated here, as there’s the question whether a whole discipline has gone off the rails, which I think the OP has convinced himself is the case with philosophy (so, maybe other things aren’t equal). I’ve tried a few times without success to recommend some epistemic humility on this point.