it might be that this should be evidence to cause us to wonder whether they are in fact wrong and the LW conventional wisdom is correct (or at least that it is nearly as obviously as correct).
It’s evidence for both. If philosophers disagree with us, we should be less confident that we’re right, and also less confident that they’re right. The examples I provided were ones where I had high enough priors on the issues to not be dragged into agnosticism by specialists’ disagreeing with me. (But, of course, I could still change my mind if we talked about it more. I don’t mean to encourage lock-step adherence to some vague idea of LW Consensus as a shortcut for avoiding actually evaluating these philosophical doctrines.)
Regarding Humeanism, I was voicing my own view (and Eliezer’s), not speaking for LessWrong as a whole. I’m more worried about philosophers being wrong than about their being un-LWy as such. Note that Humeanism here only refers to skepticism or reductionism about laws of ntaure; it doesn’t refer to any of Hume’s other views. (In fact, Hume himself was not a Humean in the sense used in the PhilPapers Survey. ‘Humeanism’ is like ‘Platonism’ in a modern context; a view only vaguely and indirectly inspired by the person for whom it’s named.)
It’s evidence for both. If philosophers disagree with us, we should be less confident that we’re right, and also less confident that they’re right. The examples I provided were ones where I had high enough priors on the issues to not be dragged into agnosticism by specialists’ disagreeing with me. (But, of course, I could still change my mind if we talked about it more. I don’t mean to encourage lock-step adherence to some vague idea of LW Consensus as a shortcut for avoiding actually evaluating these philosophical doctrines.)
Regarding Humeanism, I was voicing my own view (and Eliezer’s), not speaking for LessWrong as a whole. I’m more worried about philosophers being wrong than about their being un-LWy as such. Note that Humeanism here only refers to skepticism or reductionism about laws of ntaure; it doesn’t refer to any of Hume’s other views. (In fact, Hume himself was not a Humean in the sense used in the PhilPapers Survey. ‘Humeanism’ is like ‘Platonism’ in a modern context; a view only vaguely and indirectly inspired by the person for whom it’s named.)