Here’s the quote from EY that I started this comment thread with:
If you don’t prefer truth to happiness with false beliefs...
Both the alternatives here are talking about brain states. EY’s ‘truth’ doesn’t mean ‘truth in the world’. The world is true by definition. He means having truth in your brain. He is trying to maximize the truth/falsehood ratio of the states within his own brain.
That’s a definition of “rationality” that includes a requirement that utility supervene on brain states.
No, as MBlume said, truth, and utility of truth, supervene on brain states and the things those brain states are about. Holding my belief about the color of the sky fixed, it is true if the sky is blue and false if the sky is green.
Also, truth and happiness are just the values being weighed in this particular case; nobody ever said they’re the only things rationalists might care about.
Here’s the quote from EY that I started this comment thread with:
Both the alternatives here are talking about brain states. EY’s ‘truth’ doesn’t mean ‘truth in the world’. The world is true by definition. He means having truth in your brain. He is trying to maximize the truth/falsehood ratio of the states within his own brain.
That’s a definition of “rationality” that includes a requirement that utility supervene on brain states.
No, as MBlume said, truth, and utility of truth, supervene on brain states and the things those brain states are about. Holding my belief about the color of the sky fixed, it is true if the sky is blue and false if the sky is green.
Also, truth and happiness are just the values being weighed in this particular case; nobody ever said they’re the only things rationalists might care about.