I think that may be the most roundabout and head-spinny justification for self-deception I’ve ever heard. Wow. By a similar token, should I not take up gardening if it’s not within my power to update everyone who has the belief that I don’t garden?
I think that may be the most roundabout and head-spinny justification for self-deception I’ve ever heard.
Note that I don’t endorse self-deception, see my other comment in this thread. But the argument points to a negative trait of the choice. (The argument is related to a stance that as a rationalist, you’d want to use rhetoric as much as is common (but not more), to avoid signaling the incorrect fact of weakness of your position.)
By a similar token, should I not take up gardening if it’s not within my power to update everyone who has the belief that I don’t garden?
Normally, if you take up gardening, other people’s level of belief will either be unchanged (prior state of knowledge: they don’t have new evidence), or will move up (towards the truth) upon receiving new evidence. Here, the situation is reversed: new evidence (not new action—this is a point where your analogy breaks) will move people’s belief away from the truth.
I think that may be the most roundabout and head-spinny justification for self-deception I’ve ever heard. Wow. By a similar token, should I not take up gardening if it’s not within my power to update everyone who has the belief that I don’t garden?
Note that I don’t endorse self-deception, see my other comment in this thread. But the argument points to a negative trait of the choice. (The argument is related to a stance that as a rationalist, you’d want to use rhetoric as much as is common (but not more), to avoid signaling the incorrect fact of weakness of your position.)
Normally, if you take up gardening, other people’s level of belief will either be unchanged (prior state of knowledge: they don’t have new evidence), or will move up (towards the truth) upon receiving new evidence. Here, the situation is reversed: new evidence (not new action—this is a point where your analogy breaks) will move people’s belief away from the truth.