If “collaborative” is qualifying truth-seeking, perhaps we can see it more easily by contrast with non-collaborative truthseeking. So what might that look like?
I might simply be optimizing for the accuracy of my beliefs, instead of whether or not you also discover the truth.
I might be optimizing competitively, where my beliefs are simply judged on whether they’re better than yours.
I might be primarily concerned about learning from the environment or from myself as opposed to learning from you.
I might be following only my interests, instead of joint interests.
I might be behaving in a way that doesn’t incentivize you to point out things useful to me, or discarding clues you provide, or in a way that fails to provide you clues.
This suggests collaborative truthseeking is done 1) for the benefit of both parties, 2) in a way that builds trust and mutual understanding, and 3) in a way that uses that trust and mutual understanding as a foundation.
There’s another relevant contrast, where we could look at collaborative non-truthseeking, or contrast “collaborative truthseeking” as a procedure with other procedures that could be used (like “allocating blame”), but this one seems most related to what you’re driving at.
If “collaborative” is qualifying truth-seeking, perhaps we can see it more easily by contrast with non-collaborative truthseeking. So what might that look like?
I might simply be optimizing for the accuracy of my beliefs, instead of whether or not you also discover the truth.
I might be optimizing competitively, where my beliefs are simply judged on whether they’re better than yours.
I might be primarily concerned about learning from the environment or from myself as opposed to learning from you.
I might be following only my interests, instead of joint interests.
I might be behaving in a way that doesn’t incentivize you to point out things useful to me, or discarding clues you provide, or in a way that fails to provide you clues.
This suggests collaborative truthseeking is done 1) for the benefit of both parties, 2) in a way that builds trust and mutual understanding, and 3) in a way that uses that trust and mutual understanding as a foundation.
There’s another relevant contrast, where we could look at collaborative non-truthseeking, or contrast “collaborative truthseeking” as a procedure with other procedures that could be used (like “allocating blame”), but this one seems most related to what you’re driving at.