It seems introspectively plausible that when you ask people questions like “how do you know when you’re rationalizing”, they feel like they’ve been asked a “when did you stop beating your wife” question, and feel initially tempted to react with an “oh yeah, well maybe I don’t” regardless of whether it’s true.
That’s a good hypothesis. Unfortunately this doesn’t come from asking people, “How do you know when you’re rationalizing?” or any variant thereof. The original problem arose when we could not for the life of us convey to some individuals why the Litany of Tarski might be useful. We gave examples from our own lives and watched these individuals just blink and say, “Huh. Yeah, I guess I just don’t relate to that at all.”
It seems introspectively plausible that when you ask people questions like “how do you know when you’re rationalizing”, they feel like they’ve been asked a “when did you stop beating your wife” question, and feel initially tempted to react with an “oh yeah, well maybe I don’t” regardless of whether it’s true.
That’s a good hypothesis. Unfortunately this doesn’t come from asking people, “How do you know when you’re rationalizing?” or any variant thereof. The original problem arose when we could not for the life of us convey to some individuals why the Litany of Tarski might be useful. We gave examples from our own lives and watched these individuals just blink and say, “Huh. Yeah, I guess I just don’t relate to that at all.”
The questions are similar, but the first is not a trap.