This is pretty much what I meant by a semantic argument. If, as I’ve argued, my real preferences (as defined above) care about the projected future world (part of my map) and not just the projected future map (a sub-part of that map), then I see no difficulty with describing this by “I have preferences about the future territory”, as long as I remain aware that all the evaluation is happening within my map.
It is perhaps analogous to moral language in that when I talk about right and wrong, I keep in mind that these are patterns within my brain (analogous to those in other human brains) extrapolated from emotive desires, rather than objectively perceived entities. But with that understanding, right and wrong are still worth thinking about and discussing with others (although I need to be quite careful with my use of the terms when talking with a naive moral realist), since these are patterns that actually move me to act in certain ways, and to introspect in certain ways on my action and on the coherence of the patterns themselves.
In short, any theory of language levels or self-reference that ties you in Hofstadterian knots when discussing real, predictable human behavior (like the decision process for kin altruism) is problematic.
That said, I’m done with this thread. Thanks for an entertainingly slippery discussion!
ETA: To put it another way, learning about the Mind Projection Fallacy doesn’t mean you can never use the word “sexy” again; it just means that you should be aware of its context in the human mind, which will stop you from using it in certain novel but silly situations.
This is pretty much what I meant by a semantic argument. If, as I’ve argued, my real preferences (as defined above) care about the projected future world (part of my map) and not just the projected future map (a sub-part of that map), then I see no difficulty with describing this by “I have preferences about the future territory”, as long as I remain aware that all the evaluation is happening within my map.
It is perhaps analogous to moral language in that when I talk about right and wrong, I keep in mind that these are patterns within my brain (analogous to those in other human brains) extrapolated from emotive desires, rather than objectively perceived entities. But with that understanding, right and wrong are still worth thinking about and discussing with others (although I need to be quite careful with my use of the terms when talking with a naive moral realist), since these are patterns that actually move me to act in certain ways, and to introspect in certain ways on my action and on the coherence of the patterns themselves.
In short, any theory of language levels or self-reference that ties you in Hofstadterian knots when discussing real, predictable human behavior (like the decision process for kin altruism) is problematic.
That said, I’m done with this thread. Thanks for an entertainingly slippery discussion!
ETA: To put it another way, learning about the Mind Projection Fallacy doesn’t mean you can never use the word “sexy” again; it just means that you should be aware of its context in the human mind, which will stop you from using it in certain novel but silly situations.