If we assume he has goals other than simply being a self-abasing misanthrope, the attitude Annoyance is showing is far from rational.
A logically incorrect statement. An attitude is rational if it consistently and explicitly follows from data gathered about the world and its functioning. As there are other consequences from my behavior other than the one you so contemptuously dismiss, and you have no grounds for deciding what my goals are or whether my actions achieve them, your claim is simply wrong. Trivially so, in fact.
Arbitrarily defining the vast majority of humans as useless “problems”
It’s not arbitrary.
The rational thing to do when confronted with a position you don’t understand is ask yourself “Why did that person adopt that position?”
If your actions accomplish your goals, fine. However, it’s safe to say most of the people here don’t want to be Annoyances, and it’s important to point out that your behavior does not reflect a requirement or implication of rationality.
If you disagree, I hope you will explicitly list the assumptions leading to your belief that it’s a good idea to treat people with condescension.
The rational thing to do when confronted with a position you don’t understand is ask yourself “Why did that person adopt that position?”
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Worthwhile questions are rarely answered easily.
Search for an answer requires the question to be worthwhile, which is far from prior expectation for the research of inane-sounding positions people hold.
Search for an answer requires the question to be worthwhile, which is far from prior expectation for inane-sounding positions.
If you want to convince someone of something, it’s generally a good idea to understand why they believe what they believe now. People generally have to be convinced out of one belief before they can be convinced into another, and you can’t refute or reframe their evidence unless you know what the evidence is.
Even if their reasoning is epistemologically unsound, if you know how it’s unsound, you can utilize the same type of reasoning to change their belief. For example, if someone only believes things they “see with their own eyes”, you would then know it is a waste of time to try to prove something to them mathematically.
I agree, but in this case the benefit comes not from the expectation of finding insight in the person’s position, but from the expectation of successful communication (education), which was not the motivation referred in Annoyance’s comment.
A logically incorrect statement. An attitude is rational if it consistently and explicitly follows from data gathered about the world and its functioning. As there are other consequences from my behavior other than the one you so contemptuously dismiss, and you have no grounds for deciding what my goals are or whether my actions achieve them, your claim is simply wrong. Trivially so, in fact.
It’s not arbitrary.
The rational thing to do when confronted with a position you don’t understand is ask yourself “Why did that person adopt that position?”
If your actions accomplish your goals, fine. However, it’s safe to say most of the people here don’t want to be Annoyances, and it’s important to point out that your behavior does not reflect a requirement or implication of rationality.
If you disagree, I hope you will explicitly list the assumptions leading to your belief that it’s a good idea to treat people with condescension.
This is of low value, if the answer doesn’t come easily.
Easy answers are rarely worthwhile. Worthwhile questions are rarely answered easily.
Search for an answer requires the question to be worthwhile, which is far from prior expectation for the research of inane-sounding positions people hold.
If you want to convince someone of something, it’s generally a good idea to understand why they believe what they believe now. People generally have to be convinced out of one belief before they can be convinced into another, and you can’t refute or reframe their evidence unless you know what the evidence is.
Even if their reasoning is epistemologically unsound, if you know how it’s unsound, you can utilize the same type of reasoning to change their belief. For example, if someone only believes things they “see with their own eyes”, you would then know it is a waste of time to try to prove something to them mathematically.
I agree, but in this case the benefit comes not from the expectation of finding insight in the person’s position, but from the expectation of successful communication (education), which was not the motivation referred in Annoyance’s comment.