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.
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.