I think one place to look for this phenomenon is when in a debate, you seize upon someone’s hidden assumptions. When this happens, it usually feels like a triumph, that you have successfully uncovered an error in their thinking that invalidates a lot of what they have argued. And it is incredibly annoying to have one of your own hidden assumptions laid bare, because it is both embarrassing and means you have to redo a lot of your thinking.
But hidden assumptions aren’t bad. You have to make some assumptions to think through a problem anyway. You can only reason from somewhere to somewhere else. It’s a transitive operation. There has to be a starting point. Moreover, assumptions make thinking and computation easier. They decrease the complexity of the problem, which means you can figure out at least part of the problem. Assuming pi is 3.14 is good if you want an estimate of the volume of the Earth. But that is useless if you want to prove a theorem. So in the metaphor, maps are characterized by their assumptions/axioms.
When you come into contact with assumptions, you should make them as explicit as possible. But you should also be willing to provisionally accept others’ assumptions and think through their implications. And it is often useful to let that sit alongside your own set of beliefs as an alternate map, something that can shed light on a situation when your beliefs are inadequate.
This might be silly, but I tend to think there is no Truth, just good axioms. And oftentimes fierce debates come down to incompatible axioms. In these situations, you are better off making explicit both sets of assumptions, accepting that they are incompatible and perhaps trying on the other side’s assumptions to see how they fit.
Mostly agree. It’s really irritating and unproductive (and for me, all too frequent) when someone thinks they’ve got you nailed because they found a hidden assumption in your argument, but that assumption turns out to be completely uncontroversial, or irrelevant, or something your opponent relies on anyway.
Yes, people need to watch for the hidden assumptions they make, but they shouldn’t point out the assumptions others make unless they can say why it’s unreasonable and how its weakening would hurt the argument it’s being used for. “You’re assuming X!” is not, by itself, relevant counterargument.
I think one place to look for this phenomenon is when in a debate, you seize upon someone’s hidden assumptions. When this happens, it usually feels like a triumph, that you have successfully uncovered an error in their thinking that invalidates a lot of what they have argued. And it is incredibly annoying to have one of your own hidden assumptions laid bare, because it is both embarrassing and means you have to redo a lot of your thinking.
But hidden assumptions aren’t bad. You have to make some assumptions to think through a problem anyway. You can only reason from somewhere to somewhere else. It’s a transitive operation. There has to be a starting point. Moreover, assumptions make thinking and computation easier. They decrease the complexity of the problem, which means you can figure out at least part of the problem. Assuming pi is 3.14 is good if you want an estimate of the volume of the Earth. But that is useless if you want to prove a theorem. So in the metaphor, maps are characterized by their assumptions/axioms.
When you come into contact with assumptions, you should make them as explicit as possible. But you should also be willing to provisionally accept others’ assumptions and think through their implications. And it is often useful to let that sit alongside your own set of beliefs as an alternate map, something that can shed light on a situation when your beliefs are inadequate.
This might be silly, but I tend to think there is no Truth, just good axioms. And oftentimes fierce debates come down to incompatible axioms. In these situations, you are better off making explicit both sets of assumptions, accepting that they are incompatible and perhaps trying on the other side’s assumptions to see how they fit.
Mostly agree. It’s really irritating and unproductive (and for me, all too frequent) when someone thinks they’ve got you nailed because they found a hidden assumption in your argument, but that assumption turns out to be completely uncontroversial, or irrelevant, or something your opponent relies on anyway.
Yes, people need to watch for the hidden assumptions they make, but they shouldn’t point out the assumptions others make unless they can say why it’s unreasonable and how its weakening would hurt the argument it’s being used for. “You’re assuming X!” is not, by itself, relevant counterargument.