I’ve been accused of using “Dark Arts” when I’m not necessarily trying to deceive my readers. I believe I was making the argument that “You will have better luck getting your aims achieved if you talk about them with great confidence, as if you know you’re right.” I think this is absolutely true. On the other hand, yeah, I’m endorsing lying. (In this case, a subtle lie, a lie about philosophy, not a lie like “Officer, there’s nothing in the trunk of my car.”)
I’ve been grappling with this matter for years. Some points:
I think that whether or not talking about one’s beliefs with great confidence, as if one knows one is right is conducive to achieving one’s aims is situation dependent. Sometimes presenting a one-sided or overstated view can damage one’s credibility and make others less receptive to what one has to say.
I think that presenting information asymmetrically can promote epistemic rationality. It sometimes happens that people have previously been exposed to information asymmetrically so that presenting information asymmetrically in the opposite direction is a faster way of conveying accurate information to the said people than presenting a balanced view would be.
I think that people who have high credibility/influence/authority should hesitate to make statements that they are uncertain about with great confidence as there’s a danger of such people being taken more seriously than others who have better information than they do.
I’ve been grappling with this matter for years. Some points:
I think that whether or not talking about one’s beliefs with great confidence, as if one knows one is right is conducive to achieving one’s aims is situation dependent. Sometimes presenting a one-sided or overstated view can damage one’s credibility and make others less receptive to what one has to say.
I think that presenting information asymmetrically can promote epistemic rationality. It sometimes happens that people have previously been exposed to information asymmetrically so that presenting information asymmetrically in the opposite direction is a faster way of conveying accurate information to the said people than presenting a balanced view would be.
I think that people who have high credibility/influence/authority should hesitate to make statements that they are uncertain about with great confidence as there’s a danger of such people being taken more seriously than others who have better information than they do.