Integrity can be a double-edged sword. While it is good to judge people by the standards they expressed, it is also a surefire way to make people overly hesitant to update. If you get punished every time you change your mind because your new actions are now incongruent with the principles you explained to others before you changed your mind, then you are likely to stick with your principles for far longer than you would otherwise, even when evidence against your position is mounting.
We can distinguish two things that both fall under what you’re calling integrity:
Having one’s current stated principles accord with one’s current behavior.
Maintaining the same stated principles over time.
It seems to me that, while (1) is generally virtuous, (2) is only selectively virtuous. I generally don’t mind people abandoning their principles if they publicly say “well, I tried following these principles, and it didn’t work / I stopped wanting to / I changed my mind about what principles are good / whatever, so I’m not following these anymore” (e.g. on Twitter). This can be quite useful to people who are tracking how possible it is to follow different principles given the social environment, including people considering adopting principles themselves. Unfortunately, principles are almost always abandoned silently.
It’s worth noting that, in Judaism, because of the seriousness with which vows are treated, it is usually considered unvirtuous to make vows regularly:
The violation of both vows and oaths is considered a serious infraction in Jewish thought. While there are examples in the Bible of individuals making vows, by the rabbinic period the practice was deeply frowned upon. The Talmud states that the punishment for breaking a vow is the death of one’s children. The Shulchan Aruch explicitly warns people not to regularly make vows, and states that someone who does — even if they fulfill the vow — is called wicked and a sinner. Many observant Jews have the practice of saying b’li neder (“without a vow”) whenever they promise to do something to make explicit that they are not making a vow.
And there are rituals for dissolving vows:
Given the seriousness of oaths and vows, and the fact that Jews during some periods of history were compelled to make declarations of fealty to other religions, the rabbis developed formulas for the dissolution of vows. The best-known of these are performed in advance of the High Holidays.
Which makes sense under the view that silent abandonment of principles, without proper ritualistic recognition, is much more of a problem than abandonment of principles with proper ritualistic recognition. (Posting that you changed or broke your principles on social media seems like a fine ritual for people who don’t already have one)
A related thing it brings to mind is something like “if you speak in support of something [a project or org] because you believe in it, and then later change your mind about it and think it’s less good or harmful, you’ve done something bad to the commons by lending your credibility and then leaving that inertia there. “
(This could be woven directly into the ritual frame by having something kinda like swearing an oath in court, where you say “I’m making these claims to the best of my ability as a rationalist, upon my word. Furthermore, if I am to change my mind about these claims, I promise to make a good faith effort to do so publicly”. Or variations on that)
I generally don’t mind people abandoning their principles if they publicly say “well, I tried following these principles, and it didn’t work / I stopped wanting to / I changed my mind about what principles are good / whatever, so I’m not following these anymore” (e.g. on Twitter).
I roughly agree with this at the level of changing your mind about major principles once every few weeks or months. But if someone changes their stated principles in an unpredictable fashion every day (or every hour), then I think most of the benefits of openly stating your principles disappear. In particular accountability is only really enabled when the foundations of your principles last long enough to allow someone to both comprehend your beliefs and principles and your actions that tried to follow those principles. Since your actions usually tend to be delayed for a few weeks, there is value in not fundamentally changing your principles all the time.
Yes, I agree with this. (Though, of course, harm is minimized from constant principles-shifting if it’s publicly declared, so no one expects the person to act consistently)
We can distinguish two things that both fall under what you’re calling integrity:
Having one’s current stated principles accord with one’s current behavior.
Maintaining the same stated principles over time.
It seems to me that, while (1) is generally virtuous, (2) is only selectively virtuous. I generally don’t mind people abandoning their principles if they publicly say “well, I tried following these principles, and it didn’t work / I stopped wanting to / I changed my mind about what principles are good / whatever, so I’m not following these anymore” (e.g. on Twitter). This can be quite useful to people who are tracking how possible it is to follow different principles given the social environment, including people considering adopting principles themselves. Unfortunately, principles are almost always abandoned silently.
It’s worth noting that, in Judaism, because of the seriousness with which vows are treated, it is usually considered unvirtuous to make vows regularly:
And there are rituals for dissolving vows:
Which makes sense under the view that silent abandonment of principles, without proper ritualistic recognition, is much more of a problem than abandonment of principles with proper ritualistic recognition. (Posting that you changed or broke your principles on social media seems like a fine ritual for people who don’t already have one)
I like this frame.
A related thing it brings to mind is something like “if you speak in support of something [a project or org] because you believe in it, and then later change your mind about it and think it’s less good or harmful, you’ve done something bad to the commons by lending your credibility and then leaving that inertia there. “
(This could be woven directly into the ritual frame by having something kinda like swearing an oath in court, where you say “I’m making these claims to the best of my ability as a rationalist, upon my word. Furthermore, if I am to change my mind about these claims, I promise to make a good faith effort to do so publicly”. Or variations on that)
I also like this frame. Some additional thoughts:
I roughly agree with this at the level of changing your mind about major principles once every few weeks or months. But if someone changes their stated principles in an unpredictable fashion every day (or every hour), then I think most of the benefits of openly stating your principles disappear. In particular accountability is only really enabled when the foundations of your principles last long enough to allow someone to both comprehend your beliefs and principles and your actions that tried to follow those principles. Since your actions usually tend to be delayed for a few weeks, there is value in not fundamentally changing your principles all the time.
Yes, I agree with this. (Though, of course, harm is minimized from constant principles-shifting if it’s publicly declared, so no one expects the person to act consistently)