I am not sure I am comfortable with the idea of an entirely context-less “bad concept”. I have the annoying habit of answering questions of the type “Is it good/bad, useful/useless, etc.” with a counter-question “For which purpose?”
Yes, I understand that rare pathological cases should not crowd out useful generalizations. However given the very strong implicit context (along with the whole framework of preconceived ideas, biases, values, etc.) that people carry around in their heads, I find it useful and sometimes necessary to help/force people break out of their default worldview and consider other ways of looking at things. In particular, ways where good/bad evaluation changes the sign.
To get back to the original point, a concept is a mental model of reality, a piece of a map. A bad concept would be wrong and misleading in the sense that it would lead you to incorrect conclusions about the territory. So a “bad concept” is just another expression for a “bad map”. And, um, there are a LOT of bad maps floating around in the meme aether...
Similarly, instead of grousing how the world isn’t the way I’d like it, or a person isn’t the way I’d like them, I try to ask “what’s valuable here for me?”, which is a more productive focus.
I have the annoying habit of answering questions of the type “Is it good/bad, useful/useless, etc.” with a counter-question “For which purpose?”
“Should” is another word like this. Generally when people say should, they either mean with respect to how best to achieve some goal, or else they’re trying to make you follow their moral rules.
I am not sure I am comfortable with the idea of an entirely context-less “bad concept”. I have the annoying habit of answering questions of the type “Is it good/bad, useful/useless, etc.” with a counter-question “For which purpose?”
Yes, I understand that rare pathological cases should not crowd out useful generalizations. However given the very strong implicit context (along with the whole framework of preconceived ideas, biases, values, etc.) that people carry around in their heads, I find it useful and sometimes necessary to help/force people break out of their default worldview and consider other ways of looking at things. In particular, ways where good/bad evaluation changes the sign.
To get back to the original point, a concept is a mental model of reality, a piece of a map. A bad concept would be wrong and misleading in the sense that it would lead you to incorrect conclusions about the territory. So a “bad concept” is just another expression for a “bad map”. And, um, there are a LOT of bad maps floating around in the meme aether...
Good, for what, for whom.
Similarly, instead of grousing how the world isn’t the way I’d like it, or a person isn’t the way I’d like them, I try to ask “what’s valuable here for me?”, which is a more productive focus.
“Should” is another word like this. Generally when people say should, they either mean with respect to how best to achieve some goal, or else they’re trying to make you follow their moral rules.