I don’t know that I was proposing an epistemic norm.
In that case there was a misunderstanding somewhere. Here’s my understanding/summary of our course of conversation: I said that explicit reasoning is useful for error correction. You said we can apply explicit reasoning to the data generated by Looking, and also check predictions for error correction. I said people who talk about Looking don’t tend to talk in terms of data, hypothesis and prediction. You said they may not want to use that frame. I asked what I should ask about instead (meaning how else can I try to encourage error correction, since that was the reason for wanting to ask about data and prediction in the first place). You said “Meet him in person and ask him to show you the way in which everyone has bodhicitta.” I interpreted that as a proposed alternative (or addition) to the norm of asking for data and predictions when someone proposes a new idea.
I guess the misunderstanding happened when I asked you “what should I do instead?” and you interpreted that as asking how can I understand Looking and bodhicitta, but what I actually meant was how can I encourage error correction in case Val was wrong about everyone having bodhicitta, and he doesn’t want to use the frame of data, hypothesis and prediction. I think “Meet him in person and ask him to show you the way in which everyone has bodhicitta.” would not serve my purpose because 1) in most cases nobody would be willing to do that so most new ideas would go unchallenged and 2) it wouldn’t accomplish the goal of error correction if Looking causes most people to make the same errors.
Hopefully that clears up the misunderstanding, in which case do you want to try answering my question again?
I guess the misunderstanding happened when I asked you “what should I do instead?” and you interpreted that as asking how can I understand Looking and bodhicitta, but what I actually meant was how can I encourage error correction in case Val was wrong about everyone having bodhicitta, and he doesn’t want to use the frame of data, hypothesis and prediction.
Oh. Yes, that’s exactly what happened. Thanks for writing down that summary.
I don’t really have a good answer to this question (if I did, it would be “try to encourage Val to use the frame of data, hypothesis and prediction, just don’t expect him to do it all the time”) so I’ll just say some thoughts. In my version of the frame Val is using there’s something a bit screwy about thinking of “everyone has bodhicitta” as a belief / hypothesis that makes testable predictions. That’s not quite the data type of that assertion; it’s a data type imported over from the LW epistemic frame and it’s not entirely natural here.
Here’s a related example that might be easier to think about: consider the assertion “everyone wants to be loved.” Interpreted too literally, it’s easy to find counterexamples: some people will claim to be terrified of the idea of being loved (for example, because in their lives the people who love them, like their parents, have consistently hurt them), and other people will claim to not care one way or the other, and on some level they may even be right. But there’s a sense in which these are defensive adaptations built on top of an underlying desire to be loved, which is plausibly a human universal for sensible evo-psych reasons (if your tribe loves you they won’t kick you out, they’ll take care of you even if you stop contributing temporarily because of sickness or injury, etc). And there’s an additional sense in which thinking in terms of this evo-psych model, while helpful as a sanity check, misses the point, because it doesn’t really capture the internal experience of being a human who wants to be loved, and seeing that internal experience from the outside as another human.
So one way to orient is that “everyone wants to be loved” is partially a hypothesis that makes testable predictions, suitably interpreted, but it’s also a particular choice of orienting towards other humans: choosing to pay attention to the level at which people want to be loved, as opposed to the level at which people will make all sorts of claims about their desire to be loved.
A related way of orienting towards it is that it’s a Focusing label for a felt sense, which is much closer to the data type of “everyone has bodhicitta” as I understand it. Said another way, it’s poetry. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have epistemic content—a Val who realizes that everyone has bodhicitta anticipates somewhat different behavior from his fellow humans than a Val who doesn’t—but it does mean the epistemic content may be difficult to verbally summarize.
In that case there was a misunderstanding somewhere. Here’s my understanding/summary of our course of conversation: I said that explicit reasoning is useful for error correction. You said we can apply explicit reasoning to the data generated by Looking, and also check predictions for error correction. I said people who talk about Looking don’t tend to talk in terms of data, hypothesis and prediction. You said they may not want to use that frame. I asked what I should ask about instead (meaning how else can I try to encourage error correction, since that was the reason for wanting to ask about data and prediction in the first place). You said “Meet him in person and ask him to show you the way in which everyone has bodhicitta.” I interpreted that as a proposed alternative (or addition) to the norm of asking for data and predictions when someone proposes a new idea.
I guess the misunderstanding happened when I asked you “what should I do instead?” and you interpreted that as asking how can I understand Looking and bodhicitta, but what I actually meant was how can I encourage error correction in case Val was wrong about everyone having bodhicitta, and he doesn’t want to use the frame of data, hypothesis and prediction. I think “Meet him in person and ask him to show you the way in which everyone has bodhicitta.” would not serve my purpose because 1) in most cases nobody would be willing to do that so most new ideas would go unchallenged and 2) it wouldn’t accomplish the goal of error correction if Looking causes most people to make the same errors.
Hopefully that clears up the misunderstanding, in which case do you want to try answering my question again?
Oh. Yes, that’s exactly what happened. Thanks for writing down that summary.
I don’t really have a good answer to this question (if I did, it would be “try to encourage Val to use the frame of data, hypothesis and prediction, just don’t expect him to do it all the time”) so I’ll just say some thoughts. In my version of the frame Val is using there’s something a bit screwy about thinking of “everyone has bodhicitta” as a belief / hypothesis that makes testable predictions. That’s not quite the data type of that assertion; it’s a data type imported over from the LW epistemic frame and it’s not entirely natural here.
Here’s a related example that might be easier to think about: consider the assertion “everyone wants to be loved.” Interpreted too literally, it’s easy to find counterexamples: some people will claim to be terrified of the idea of being loved (for example, because in their lives the people who love them, like their parents, have consistently hurt them), and other people will claim to not care one way or the other, and on some level they may even be right. But there’s a sense in which these are defensive adaptations built on top of an underlying desire to be loved, which is plausibly a human universal for sensible evo-psych reasons (if your tribe loves you they won’t kick you out, they’ll take care of you even if you stop contributing temporarily because of sickness or injury, etc). And there’s an additional sense in which thinking in terms of this evo-psych model, while helpful as a sanity check, misses the point, because it doesn’t really capture the internal experience of being a human who wants to be loved, and seeing that internal experience from the outside as another human.
So one way to orient is that “everyone wants to be loved” is partially a hypothesis that makes testable predictions, suitably interpreted, but it’s also a particular choice of orienting towards other humans: choosing to pay attention to the level at which people want to be loved, as opposed to the level at which people will make all sorts of claims about their desire to be loved.
A related way of orienting towards it is that it’s a Focusing label for a felt sense, which is much closer to the data type of “everyone has bodhicitta” as I understand it. Said another way, it’s poetry. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have epistemic content—a Val who realizes that everyone has bodhicitta anticipates somewhat different behavior from his fellow humans than a Val who doesn’t—but it does mean the epistemic content may be difficult to verbally summarize.