This feels like an equivocating-shades-of-grey argument, of the form ‘nobody is perfectly receptive to good arguments, and perfectly unswayed by bad ones, therefore, everyone is equally bad at it.’ Which is, of course, unjustified. In truth, if rationalists are not at least somewhat more swayed by good arguments than bad ones (as compared to the general population), we’re doing something wrong.
Which is, of course, unjustified. In truth, if rationalists are not at least somewhat more swayed by good arguments than bad ones (as compared to the general population), we’re doing something wrong.
Not really, we’re just equally susceptible to irrational biases.
Trivial proof for LW rationalists: read any LW thread regarding a controversial self-improvement topic, including nutrition, exercise, dating advice, etc., where people are diametrically opposed in their positions, using every iota of their argumentative reasoning power in order not to open themselves to even understanding their opponents’ position, let alone reasoning about it. It is extremely improbable that all divisive advice (including diametrically-opposed divisive advice) is incorrect, and therefore the bulk of LW rationalists are correctly rejecting it.
(Side note: I didn’t say anything about receptiveness to good arguments, I said receptiveness to unsolicited advice, as did the comment I was replying to. I actually assumed that we were talking about bad arguments, since most arguments, on average, are bad. My point was more that there are many topics which rationalists will reject out of hand without even bothering to listen to the arguments, good or bad, and that in this, they are just like any other human being. The point isn’t to invoke a fallacy of the grey, the point is for rationalists not to pat ourselves on the back in thinking we’re demonstrably better at this than other human beings: demonstrably, we’re not.)
This feels like an equivocating-shades-of-grey argument, of the form ‘nobody is perfectly receptive to good arguments, and perfectly unswayed by bad ones, therefore, everyone is equally bad at it.’ Which is, of course, unjustified. In truth, if rationalists are not at least somewhat more swayed by good arguments than bad ones (as compared to the general population), we’re doing something wrong.
Not really, we’re just equally susceptible to irrational biases.
Trivial proof for LW rationalists: read any LW thread regarding a controversial self-improvement topic, including nutrition, exercise, dating advice, etc., where people are diametrically opposed in their positions, using every iota of their argumentative reasoning power in order not to open themselves to even understanding their opponents’ position, let alone reasoning about it. It is extremely improbable that all divisive advice (including diametrically-opposed divisive advice) is incorrect, and therefore the bulk of LW rationalists are correctly rejecting it.
(Side note: I didn’t say anything about receptiveness to good arguments, I said receptiveness to unsolicited advice, as did the comment I was replying to. I actually assumed that we were talking about bad arguments, since most arguments, on average, are bad. My point was more that there are many topics which rationalists will reject out of hand without even bothering to listen to the arguments, good or bad, and that in this, they are just like any other human being. The point isn’t to invoke a fallacy of the grey, the point is for rationalists not to pat ourselves on the back in thinking we’re demonstrably better at this than other human beings: demonstrably, we’re not.)