If agreement is more important to you than objective truth, than sure, that method will work. I just happen to think a system that optimizes for agreement at the expense of truth and facts tends to lead to a lot of pain in the end. You end up with Jesuits masterfully arguing the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.
Not just any agreement but a kind of pseudo- Aumann style agreement between the two parties.
Edit: If a rationalist is hired to arbitrate a dispute between two Jesuits regarding the number of angels she isn’t going to start complaining that there are no angels. That isn’t what she was hired to do. If the Jesuits want to read some atheistic arguments they can find those on their own. The task of the arbitrator is applying rationalist method to whatever shared premises the disputing parties have. But the system as a whole still tends toward truth because an arbitration between a Jesuit and an atheist will generate a ruling in favor of atheism (assuming the Jesuit believes in God because of evidence and not Kierkegaardian faith or “grace”).
Think we’ve got some fundamental disagreements here about just what it is that rationalists do. You cannot just hire them to argue anything. The ideal rationalist is the one who only ends up arguing true beliefs, and who, when presented with anything else, throws up their hands and says “How am I supposed to make that sound plausible?”
The ideal rationalist is the one who only ends up arguing true beliefs, and who, when presented with anything else, throws up their hands and says “How am I supposed to make that sound plausible?”
I reply: I’m paying you a lot of money. You’ll find a way.
When I say or hear “rationality”, I think of the tool, not of the noble “ideal rationalist” whose only pursuit is truth, not money or other personal interest.
That which can be used to argue for any side is not distinguishing evidence, whether “that” is a strategy, a person, an outlook on life, whatever.
Rationality is winning. I’m hiring a master rationalist to make me win my court case. What’s not to like?
A rational debate and agreeing on objective truth may be what the arbitrage system wants. But what the individual disputant wants, in the end, in an important enough court case, is to win. If I have to game the system to win, I will. (It doesn’t help when we create legal entities like corporations, which are liable to get into many more trials and also to treat many more trials as all-out war where winning is paramount.)
If agreement is more important to you than objective truth, than sure, that method will work. I just happen to think a system that optimizes for agreement at the expense of truth and facts tends to lead to a lot of pain in the end. You end up with Jesuits masterfully arguing the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin.
Uh… like I said:
Edit: If a rationalist is hired to arbitrate a dispute between two Jesuits regarding the number of angels she isn’t going to start complaining that there are no angels. That isn’t what she was hired to do. If the Jesuits want to read some atheistic arguments they can find those on their own. The task of the arbitrator is applying rationalist method to whatever shared premises the disputing parties have. But the system as a whole still tends toward truth because an arbitration between a Jesuit and an atheist will generate a ruling in favor of atheism (assuming the Jesuit believes in God because of evidence and not Kierkegaardian faith or “grace”).
Think we’ve got some fundamental disagreements here about just what it is that rationalists do. You cannot just hire them to argue anything. The ideal rationalist is the one who only ends up arguing true beliefs, and who, when presented with anything else, throws up their hands and says “How am I supposed to make that sound plausible?”
That which can be used to argue for any side is not distinguishing evidence, whether “that” is a strategy, a person, an outlook on life, whatever.
I reply: I’m paying you a lot of money. You’ll find a way.
When I say or hear “rationality”, I think of the tool, not of the noble “ideal rationalist” whose only pursuit is truth, not money or other personal interest.
Rationality is winning. I’m hiring a master rationalist to make me win my court case. What’s not to like?
A rational debate and agreeing on objective truth may be what the arbitrage system wants. But what the individual disputant wants, in the end, in an important enough court case, is to win. If I have to game the system to win, I will. (It doesn’t help when we create legal entities like corporations, which are liable to get into many more trials and also to treat many more trials as all-out war where winning is paramount.)