Many people who delve into the deep parts of analytical philosophy will end up feeling at times like they can’t justify anything, that definite knowledge is impossible to ascertain, and so forth. It’s a classic trend. Hume is famous for being a “skeptic”, although almost everyone seems to misunderstand what that means within the context of his philosophical system.
See here for a post I wrote which I could have called The Final Antidote to Skepticism.
Your argument seems to summarise to “knowledge is possible because automatic knowledge is possible”. That works if knowledge is just one thing, but the sceptic has the ready reply that they are concerned about particular levels and types of knowledge, for instance certain knowledge and knowledge of ontological fundamentals. LessWrong rationalism has basically conceded the point about certainty to the sceptic. And the appeal automatic knowledge is essentially an appeal to know -how, and therefore no answer to scepticism about fundamental ontological knowledge.
It might be possible to argue that know-how subsumes all other firms of knowledge , but you haven’t. If it is the case that
“The goal of human action is to achieve states of affairs which are satisfying. ”, then it is still possible that what I find satisfying to be deep theoretical knowledge , not know how.
Deep theoretical knowledge is foxy, about a few things, not hedgehoggy, shallow knowledge about many things. For obvious reasons, manual reasoning cannot exhaustuve knowledge of every apparent entity, but that is not how philosophical scepticism is argued.
I described what it feels from the inside to run into philosophical skepticism. It’s simply where your ability to engage in manual reasoning hits its limit, but you press onward and overheat your brain. The final antidote to this issue is to simply realize exactly what happened.
The feeling of philosophical skepticism is a psychological side effect of a certain kind of intellectual adventure. I’ve been there many times in the past. The antidote is to realize that we as humans are designed such that we have a limit to how much manual reasoning we can do and how deep we can go in a given timeframe, where the limit descends upon us quickly enough that we must spend most of our day-to-day life thinking in an automatic way.
The ready reply you mentioned doesn’t address my argument. I’m absolutely not suggesting that the person throw out their desire to produce knowledge and understanding through manual thinking. I’m simply explaining exactly what’s going on so the person can re-frame the situation. Philosophical skepticism isn’t a statement about the world; it’s a mental feeling. For most people, encountering that feeling causes them to make grandiose claims about reality. My suggestion should bring them back down to Earth: “You’ve figure out a lot, but you’re at your limit. Take a break.”
Have you experienced this psychological effect? If not, then you may simply be repeating the words that people who have ended up with the feeling of philosophical skepticism have used, in which case it may be harder to challenge my arguments in an effective way, since I’m pushing aside the claims about reality they’re making as a result of experiencing this side effect, and instead describing exactly what this side effect is.
I described what it feels from the inside to run into philosophical skepticism
That was the content . The title was a final solution to philosophical scepticism. The title doesn’t match the content . Scepticism is a set of problems about the possibility and limitation of knowledge. The title doesn’t match the content.
Philosophical skepticism isn’t a statement about the world; it’s a mental feeling
It isn’t either.
Scepticism is a set of problems about the possibility and limitation of knowledge.
Philosophical skepticism isn’t a statement about the world; it’s a mental feeling
Pushing aside isn’t solving, it’s dissolving at best. You can’t get to “everything is knowable” from “sometimes brain s get overheated”.
I’m open to a continuing conversation. Your post just gave me the impression that you weren’t trying to read my writing in a careful manner. To be honest, the number of punctuation oddities and unusual phrasings in your post made me believe you simply didn’t care about the discussion. This is a rather deep and technical topic, so it doesn’t seem worth my time to interact with someone who isn’t invested.
Worst yet you didn’t even respond to this question of mine:
Have you experienced this psychological effect?
This was a key question, because if your response is “no” or it turns out that you don’t know what it means to experience philosophical skepticism in the tradition of e.g. David Hume in the conclusion of Book I of A Treatise of Human Nature, then we’re going to have to delve into the nature of that psychological effect from a much more fundamental point of view.
Pushing aside isn’t solving, it’s dissolving at best.
Participating on Less Wrong suggests that you should know that dissolving in many cases is solving.
I think you have made a fundamental error about what philosophical scepticism is in the first place, so I am not motivated to drill down any further than it takes to point that out. It’s also pretty unpromising for a discussion to start off with a claim to have a final solution.
Worst yet you didn’t even respond to this question of mine:
Are you aware that you have failed to answer at least half the questions I posed to you?
Have you experienced this psychological effect?
I don’t agree that “philosophical scepticism” refers to a feeling, and nothing else, in the first place. You need to take a step back.
participating on Less Wrong suggests that you should know that dissolving in many cases is solving.
Participating in many other things has shown me that LessWrong is quite confused about solution and dissolution. Solving a problemimokues it ever existed. Dissolving a problem is generally showing it never existed, so the two are not compatible.
What makes you think that people can pattern-match sociopathy by looking at someone’s face?
Sociopathy usually doesn’t lead to low charisma and people getting the sense not to interact with the person.
In certain cases people can pattern-match sociopath by looking at someone’s face. I didn’t mean to suggest the average person can do it on a consistent basis.
Book “Without Conscience” by Robert Hare who is a real psychologist has simple tips on recognizing them. Not purely by photographic appearance but it is not too hard. Example with eye contact they tend to stare too long.
Many people who delve into the deep parts of analytical philosophy will end up feeling at times like they can’t justify anything, that definite knowledge is impossible to ascertain, and so forth. It’s a classic trend. Hume is famous for being a “skeptic”, although almost everyone seems to misunderstand what that means within the context of his philosophical system.
See here for a post I wrote which I could have called The Final Antidote to Skepticism.
Final, eh?
Your argument seems to summarise to “knowledge is possible because automatic knowledge is possible”. That works if knowledge is just one thing, but the sceptic has the ready reply that they are concerned about particular levels and types of knowledge, for instance certain knowledge and knowledge of ontological fundamentals. LessWrong rationalism has basically conceded the point about certainty to the sceptic. And the appeal automatic knowledge is essentially an appeal to know -how, and therefore no answer to scepticism about fundamental ontological knowledge.
It might be possible to argue that know-how subsumes all other firms of knowledge , but you haven’t. If it is the case that “The goal of human action is to achieve states of affairs which are satisfying. ”, then it is still possible that what I find satisfying to be deep theoretical knowledge , not know how.
Deep theoretical knowledge is foxy, about a few things, not hedgehoggy, shallow knowledge about many things. For obvious reasons, manual reasoning cannot exhaustuve knowledge of every apparent entity, but that is not how philosophical scepticism is argued.
I described what it feels from the inside to run into philosophical skepticism. It’s simply where your ability to engage in manual reasoning hits its limit, but you press onward and overheat your brain. The final antidote to this issue is to simply realize exactly what happened.
The feeling of philosophical skepticism is a psychological side effect of a certain kind of intellectual adventure. I’ve been there many times in the past. The antidote is to realize that we as humans are designed such that we have a limit to how much manual reasoning we can do and how deep we can go in a given timeframe, where the limit descends upon us quickly enough that we must spend most of our day-to-day life thinking in an automatic way.
The ready reply you mentioned doesn’t address my argument. I’m absolutely not suggesting that the person throw out their desire to produce knowledge and understanding through manual thinking. I’m simply explaining exactly what’s going on so the person can re-frame the situation. Philosophical skepticism isn’t a statement about the world; it’s a mental feeling. For most people, encountering that feeling causes them to make grandiose claims about reality. My suggestion should bring them back down to Earth: “You’ve figure out a lot, but you’re at your limit. Take a break.”
Have you experienced this psychological effect? If not, then you may simply be repeating the words that people who have ended up with the feeling of philosophical skepticism have used, in which case it may be harder to challenge my arguments in an effective way, since I’m pushing aside the claims about reality they’re making as a result of experiencing this side effect, and instead describing exactly what this side effect is.
That was the content . The title was a final solution to philosophical scepticism. The title doesn’t match the content . Scepticism is a set of problems about the possibility and limitation of knowledge. The title doesn’t match the content.
It isn’t either. Scepticism is a set of problems about the possibility and limitation of knowledge.
Pushing aside isn’t solving, it’s dissolving at best. You can’t get to “everything is knowable” from “sometimes brain s get overheated”.
You’re not putting in very much effort to have a deep discussion.
Are you announcing a final solution or do you want a continuing conversation?
I’m open to a continuing conversation. Your post just gave me the impression that you weren’t trying to read my writing in a careful manner. To be honest, the number of punctuation oddities and unusual phrasings in your post made me believe you simply didn’t care about the discussion. This is a rather deep and technical topic, so it doesn’t seem worth my time to interact with someone who isn’t invested.
Worst yet you didn’t even respond to this question of mine:
This was a key question, because if your response is “no” or it turns out that you don’t know what it means to experience philosophical skepticism in the tradition of e.g. David Hume in the conclusion of Book I of A Treatise of Human Nature, then we’re going to have to delve into the nature of that psychological effect from a much more fundamental point of view.
Participating on Less Wrong suggests that you should know that dissolving in many cases is solving.
I think you have made a fundamental error about what philosophical scepticism is in the first place, so I am not motivated to drill down any further than it takes to point that out. It’s also pretty unpromising for a discussion to start off with a claim to have a final solution.
Are you aware that you have failed to answer at least half the questions I posed to you?
I don’t agree that “philosophical scepticism” refers to a feeling, and nothing else, in the first place. You need to take a step back.
Participating in many other things has shown me that LessWrong is quite confused about solution and dissolution. Solving a problemimokues it ever existed. Dissolving a problem is generally showing it never existed, so the two are not compatible.
What makes you think that people can pattern-match sociopathy by looking at someone’s face? Sociopathy usually doesn’t lead to low charisma and people getting the sense not to interact with the person.
In certain cases people can pattern-match sociopath by looking at someone’s face. I didn’t mean to suggest the average person can do it on a consistent basis.
Do you have any links, because this is interesting if true. Kinda like human lie detectors. But I am skeptical, because how would such a thing arise?
Why would sociopaths have distinguishing facial markers and what are they?
Book “Without Conscience” by Robert Hare who is a real psychologist has simple tips on recognizing them. Not purely by photographic appearance but it is not too hard. Example with eye contact they tend to stare too long.