Realistically, an argument like yours, made back in the day, would have shown that Newton should have devoted his life to inventing better agricultural tools. And it might have been a good argument—applied to someone other than Newton. (They could really have used better agricultural tools, no doubt.)
1) Are you agreeing with paulfchristiano that he should abandon pure math today and choose some more productive occupation, unless he’s as exceptional as Newton was in his time?
2) Why do you think the world would be worse off now if Newton had chosen to invent agricultural tools, or otherwise maximize instrumental good in his own time? How about if everyone else used the same rule too? I think we’d have a pretty awesome world today! Isn’t this the proper test of whether an argument “generalizes”?
1) Are you agreeing with paulfchristiano that he should abandon pure math today and choose some more productive occupation, unless he’s as exceptional as Newton was in his time?
2) Why do you think the world would be worse off now if Newton had chosen to invent agricultural tools, or otherwise maximize instrumental good in his own time? How about if everyone else used the same rule too? I think we’d have a pretty awesome world today! Isn’t this the proper test of whether an argument “generalizes”?