While it’s undeniable that the social prestige of a belief is not necessarily dependent on its truth, and that social pressures often prevent people from arriving at true beliefs, it’s also important to remember that:
human epistemic rationality is suboptimal across the board, even in domains where it’s not clear how having accurate beliefs would be socially costly;
even when true beliefs appear to have a social penalty, this need not be the case for a person with sufficient social skill;
the social costs of particular beliefs vary greatly over time (atheism now vs. in the past; or in the other direction, creationism); and
people value truth enough to be disturbed when this conflict is pointed out to them.
Hence I would warn against drawing the implication that the aspiring rationalist’s project is in any sense futile.
While it’s undeniable [...] that social pressures often prevent people from arriving at true beliefs
Social pressures also often encourage people to arrive at true beliefs. I’m not at all convinced that the net effect of social pressures runs counter to truth. There are some specific subject matters (“the afterlife” e.g.) that pose a problem, but then there are other specific areas (mathematics, for poor thinkers) where social pressures push people into correct beliefs they would otherwise lack.
While it’s undeniable that the social prestige of a belief is not necessarily dependent on its truth, and that social pressures often prevent people from arriving at true beliefs, it’s also important to remember that:
human epistemic rationality is suboptimal across the board, even in domains where it’s not clear how having accurate beliefs would be socially costly;
even when true beliefs appear to have a social penalty, this need not be the case for a person with sufficient social skill;
the social costs of particular beliefs vary greatly over time (atheism now vs. in the past; or in the other direction, creationism); and
people value truth enough to be disturbed when this conflict is pointed out to them.
Hence I would warn against drawing the implication that the aspiring rationalist’s project is in any sense futile.
Social pressures also often encourage people to arrive at true beliefs. I’m not at all convinced that the net effect of social pressures runs counter to truth. There are some specific subject matters (“the afterlife” e.g.) that pose a problem, but then there are other specific areas (mathematics, for poor thinkers) where social pressures push people into correct beliefs they would otherwise lack.
I didn’t say that it is futile, merely that local incentives for hedonic irrationality are a serious challenge.