The claim that scissor statements are dangerous is itself a scissor statement: I think it’s obviously false, and will fight you over it. Social interaction is not that brittle. It is important to notice the key ruptures between people’s values/beliefs. Disagreements do matter, in ways that sometimes rightly prevent cooperation.
World population is ~2^33, so 33 independent scissor statements would set you frothing in total war of everyone against everyone. Except people are able to fluidly navigate much, much higher levels of difference and complexity than that. Every topic and subculture has fractal disagreements, each battle fiercely fought, and we’re basically fine. Is it productive to automatically collaborate on a project with someone who disagrees with your fundamental premises? How should astronomy and astrology best coexist, especially when one of the two is badly out-numbered?
Vigorous, open-ended epistemic and moral competition is hard. Neutrality and collaboration can be useful, but are always context-sensitive and provisional. They are ongoing negotiations, weighing all the different consequences and strategies. A fighting couple can’t skip past all the messy heated asymmetric conflicts with some rigid absolutes about civil discourse.
Vigorous, open-ended epistemic and moral competition is hard. Neutrality and collaboration can be useful, but are always context-sensitive and provisional. They are ongoing negotiations, weighing all the different consequences and strategies. A fighting couple can’t skip past all the messy heated asymmetric conflicts with some rigid absolutes about civil discourse.
I agree with this. The intended message is not that cooperation is always the right choice, but that monstrous morals alone should not be enough to rule out cooperation. Fighting is still sometimes the best choice.
The claim that scissor statements are dangerous is itself a scissor statement: I think it’s obviously false, and will fight you over it. Social interaction is not that brittle. It is important to notice the key ruptures between people’s values/beliefs. Disagreements do matter, in ways that sometimes rightly prevent cooperation.
World population is ~2^33, so 33 independent scissor statements would set you frothing in total war of everyone against everyone. Except people are able to fluidly navigate much, much higher levels of difference and complexity than that. Every topic and subculture has fractal disagreements, each battle fiercely fought, and we’re basically fine. Is it productive to automatically collaborate on a project with someone who disagrees with your fundamental premises? How should astronomy and astrology best coexist, especially when one of the two is badly out-numbered?
Vigorous, open-ended epistemic and moral competition is hard. Neutrality and collaboration can be useful, but are always context-sensitive and provisional. They are ongoing negotiations, weighing all the different consequences and strategies. A fighting couple can’t skip past all the messy heated asymmetric conflicts with some rigid absolutes about civil discourse.
I agree with this. The intended message is not that cooperation is always the right choice, but that monstrous morals alone should not be enough to rule out cooperation. Fighting is still sometimes the best choice.
What are your thoughts on Three Worlds Collide?