Your comment reminded me of a post I’ve long wanted to write. The idea is that examining assumptions is unproductive. The only way to make intellectual progress, either individually or as a group, is to stop arguing about assumptions and instead explore their implications wherever they might lead. The #1 reason why I took so long to understand Newcomb’s Problem or Counterfactual Mugging was my insistence on denying the assumptions behind these problems. Instead I should have said to myself, okay, is this direction of inquiry interesting when taken on its own terms?
Many assumptions seemed divorced from real life at first, e.g. people dismissed the study of electromagnetism as an impractical toy, and considered number theory hopelessly abstract until cryptography arrived. People seem unable to judge the usefulness of assumptions before exploring their implications in detail, but they absolutely love arguing about assumptions instead of getting anything done.
There, thanks for encouraging me to write the first draft :-)
Absolutely, I agree of course. If a line of inquiry is interesting in itself and a progress is being made, why not pursue it? My question was only about its direct relevance to FAI. Or, rather, whether the arguments that I made to myself about its non-relevance can be easily refuted.
And, you know, questioning of assumptions can sometimes be useful too. From a false assumption anything follows :)
In any case, I’m glad to be of service, however small. Your posts are generally excellent.
Your comment reminded me of a post I’ve long wanted to write. The idea is that examining assumptions is unproductive. The only way to make intellectual progress, either individually or as a group, is to stop arguing about assumptions and instead explore their implications wherever they might lead. The #1 reason why I took so long to understand Newcomb’s Problem or Counterfactual Mugging was my insistence on denying the assumptions behind these problems. Instead I should have said to myself, okay, is this direction of inquiry interesting when taken on its own terms?
Many assumptions seemed divorced from real life at first, e.g. people dismissed the study of electromagnetism as an impractical toy, and considered number theory hopelessly abstract until cryptography arrived. People seem unable to judge the usefulness of assumptions before exploring their implications in detail, but they absolutely love arguing about assumptions instead of getting anything done.
There, thanks for encouraging me to write the first draft :-)
Absolutely, I agree of course. If a line of inquiry is interesting in itself and a progress is being made, why not pursue it? My question was only about its direct relevance to FAI. Or, rather, whether the arguments that I made to myself about its non-relevance can be easily refuted.
And, you know, questioning of assumptions can sometimes be useful too. From a false assumption anything follows :)
In any case, I’m glad to be of service, however small. Your posts are generally excellent.
Interesting. Do you see any current arguments over assumptions that we should stop (on LW or elsewhere)?
Hmm, looks like I sometimes attack people for starting from (what I consider) wrong assumptions. Maybe I should rethink my position on those issues.