Um, all I was saying was that women and black people are underrepresented here, but that ought not be explained away by the subject matter of Less Wrong.
“Ought”? I say it ‘ought’ to be explained away be the subject matter of less wrong if and only if that is an accurate explanation. Truth isn’t normative.
Is this a language issue? Am I using “ought” incorrectly? I’m claiming that the truth of the matter is that women are capable of rationality, and have a place here, so it would be wrong (in both an absolute and a moral sense) to claim that their lack of presence is due to this being a blog about rationality.
Perhaps I should weaken my statement to say “if women are as capable as men in rationality, their underrepresentation here ought not be explained away by the subject matter”. I’m not sure whether I feel like I should or shouldn’t apologize for taking the premise of that sentence as a given, but I did, hence my statement.
Ahh, ok. That seems reasonable. I had got the impression that you had taken the premise for granted primarily because it would be objectionable if it was not true and the fact of the matter was an afterthought. Probably because that’s the kind of reasoning I usually see from other people of your species.
I’m not going to comment either way about the premise except to say that it is inclination and not capability that is relevant here.
“Ought”? I say it ‘ought’ to be explained away be the subject matter of less wrong if and only if that is an accurate explanation. Truth isn’t normative.
Is this a language issue? Am I using “ought” incorrectly? I’m claiming that the truth of the matter is that women are capable of rationality, and have a place here, so it would be wrong (in both an absolute and a moral sense) to claim that their lack of presence is due to this being a blog about rationality.
Perhaps I should weaken my statement to say “if women are as capable as men in rationality, their underrepresentation here ought not be explained away by the subject matter”. I’m not sure whether I feel like I should or shouldn’t apologize for taking the premise of that sentence as a given, but I did, hence my statement.
Ahh, ok. That seems reasonable. I had got the impression that you had taken the premise for granted primarily because it would be objectionable if it was not true and the fact of the matter was an afterthought. Probably because that’s the kind of reasoning I usually see from other people of your species.
I’m not going to comment either way about the premise except to say that it is inclination and not capability that is relevant here.