No. Allowing yourself a line of retreat helps disincentivize the less-rational parts of your brain from stubbornly insisting on continuing to defend a proposition after it is no longer viable.
I haven’t had a real opinion on gun control for years… Am I deluding myself when I say I have no strong feelings one way or the other? The idea that I am having an argument with myself when I think about gun control, and must offer myself a way to save face and concede to myself that I was wrong is silly.
If I am self-aware enough to think “I need to trick myself into being neutral,” I couldn’t have been too close-minded in the first place.
It’s not about saving self-face or anything. It’s about making sure you know what you would do if it were the case so it isn’t unthinkable that it could be the case.
Maybe you are just more rational than the rest of us, but I definitely notice that it helps.
What I would do? Probably nothing. I can’t vote and I’ve never been very interested in politics. This question does not have the same confusing unfathomable quality as the examples in the article (souls and god existing). The world looks the about the same either way. Though I admit I misremembered what a line of retreat is, just extrapolating from the name I guess.
No. Allowing yourself a line of retreat helps disincentivize the less-rational parts of your brain from stubbornly insisting on continuing to defend a proposition after it is no longer viable.
I haven’t had a real opinion on gun control for years… Am I deluding myself when I say I have no strong feelings one way or the other? The idea that I am having an argument with myself when I think about gun control, and must offer myself a way to save face and concede to myself that I was wrong is silly.
If I am self-aware enough to think “I need to trick myself into being neutral,” I couldn’t have been too close-minded in the first place.
It’s not about saving self-face or anything. It’s about making sure you know what you would do if it were the case so it isn’t unthinkable that it could be the case.
Maybe you are just more rational than the rest of us, but I definitely notice that it helps.
Did you read the article?
What I would do? Probably nothing. I can’t vote and I’ve never been very interested in politics. This question does not have the same confusing unfathomable quality as the examples in the article (souls and god existing). The world looks the about the same either way. Though I admit I misremembered what a line of retreat is, just extrapolating from the name I guess.