When I read years-old writings where he makes some of those mistakes he sounds about as knowledgeable, just as smart, just as honest, and just as sure he’s right as he is now in his new beliefs.
Then those factors aren’t very good discriminators of truth, are they? It’s not just “improper” to take them into account, it actually doesn’t work.
In whatever facets I sounded about as “knowledgeable”, “smart”, “honest”, or “self-assured” then as now, you might take these facets into account in deciding whether someone’s arguments are worth your time to read, but you shouldn’t take them into account in deciding whether the person is right. Whatever it is that caused you to reject most of my old self’s beliefs regardless, is what’s doing the actual work of discriminating truth from falsehood, not those other perceptions.
Fair enough, Recovering. My own point is that:
When I read years-old writings where he makes some of those mistakes he sounds about as knowledgeable, just as smart, just as honest, and just as sure he’s right as he is now in his new beliefs.
Then those factors aren’t very good discriminators of truth, are they? It’s not just “improper” to take them into account, it actually doesn’t work.
In whatever facets I sounded about as “knowledgeable”, “smart”, “honest”, or “self-assured” then as now, you might take these facets into account in deciding whether someone’s arguments are worth your time to read, but you shouldn’t take them into account in deciding whether the person is right. Whatever it is that caused you to reject most of my old self’s beliefs regardless, is what’s doing the actual work of discriminating truth from falsehood, not those other perceptions.