But is it really fruitless? Yes, you showed it’s flawed, but I can immediately imagine ways it might achieve what seems to be its goal of getting people to notice better how they came to think what they think and throw it into a light where they might re-examine those reasons and move towards reflective equilibrium. Maybe it’s not the best way to do it, but it’s a way that likely works at least sometimes for some people or else I would expect it wouldn’t have been so salient to you as to be worth writing about (compare the way no one has to write a post explaining why giving yourself concussions to lose weight is a bad idea—it’s got no proponents, no reasons to think it would work, and probably no kernel of value that might be doing something in a less-than-optimal way but still doing something in the expected direction).
That’s what I’m trying to get at: why do you think it’s fruitless? I see arguments showing it has problems, but not a clear line of reasoning to show me that those problems make it not worth it weighed against whatever benefits people who promote it believe it delivers. If I was a proponent of street epistemology I’d read this and say “yeah, sure, it’s not a perfect method, but on balance it’s better than not doing it so I’m going to keep doing it” and being neutral I read this and say “yeah, okay, I see, there are a few problems, but every method has some problems for some purposes, so I remain neutral on it and am not swayed either way”. Again, since you say “against”, I anticipated and wanted to ask if there was some argument for “against” rather than “neutral but better informed of the caveats”.
But is it really fruitless? Yes, you showed it’s flawed, but I can immediately imagine ways it might achieve what seems to be its goal of getting people to notice better how they came to think what they think and throw it into a light where they might re-examine those reasons and move towards reflective equilibrium. Maybe it’s not the best way to do it, but it’s a way that likely works at least sometimes for some people or else I would expect it wouldn’t have been so salient to you as to be worth writing about (compare the way no one has to write a post explaining why giving yourself concussions to lose weight is a bad idea—it’s got no proponents, no reasons to think it would work, and probably no kernel of value that might be doing something in a less-than-optimal way but still doing something in the expected direction).
That’s what I’m trying to get at: why do you think it’s fruitless? I see arguments showing it has problems, but not a clear line of reasoning to show me that those problems make it not worth it weighed against whatever benefits people who promote it believe it delivers. If I was a proponent of street epistemology I’d read this and say “yeah, sure, it’s not a perfect method, but on balance it’s better than not doing it so I’m going to keep doing it” and being neutral I read this and say “yeah, okay, I see, there are a few problems, but every method has some problems for some purposes, so I remain neutral on it and am not swayed either way”. Again, since you say “against”, I anticipated and wanted to ask if there was some argument for “against” rather than “neutral but better informed of the caveats”.