… Aren’t most statements like this wanting to be on the meta level, same way as if you said “your methodology here is flawed in X, Y, Z ways” regardless of agreement with conclusion?
same way as if you said “your methodology here is flawed in X, Y, Z ways” regardless of agreement with conclusion?
This raises an interesting issue. A meta-argument is an argument about an argument. Arguments about methodology are indeed “meta”, but they are “meta” in a different way than “you are insufficiently truth-seeking” is. You can argue about methodology because you think certain methodologies are more reliable, and thus there is still a strong connection to the object level. Thus I would be tempted to call this a meta-object-argument, a meta-argument who’s purpose is to help address the object level.
“You are insufficiently truth-seeking”, can be meta in the sense that it raises a higher order issue, that the person in the discussion is doing something bad. We might call it a meta-meta-argument, a meta-argument who’s purpose is to address a meta-level issue.
Aren’t most statements like this wanting to be on the meta level
I think in many cases it’s genuinely unclear. For reasons of humor my post kind of implies a fairly adversarial framing, where it often is going to be the case that people are intending to “go meta”, but I think you can invoke the idea of truth-seeking in a much softer way as well, were its not necessarily intended to be “meta” but often will end up getting you there anyway.
Even when you are fully intending to “go meta”, I believe my advice still applies.
… Aren’t most statements like this wanting to be on the meta level, same way as if you said “your methodology here is flawed in X, Y, Z ways” regardless of agreement with conclusion?
This raises an interesting issue. A meta-argument is an argument about an argument. Arguments about methodology are indeed “meta”, but they are “meta” in a different way than “you are insufficiently truth-seeking” is. You can argue about methodology because you think certain methodologies are more reliable, and thus there is still a strong connection to the object level. Thus I would be tempted to call this a meta-object-argument, a meta-argument who’s purpose is to help address the object level.
“You are insufficiently truth-seeking”, can be meta in the sense that it raises a higher order issue, that the person in the discussion is doing something bad. We might call it a meta-meta-argument, a meta-argument who’s purpose is to address a meta-level issue.
I think in many cases it’s genuinely unclear. For reasons of humor my post kind of implies a fairly adversarial framing, where it often is going to be the case that people are intending to “go meta”, but I think you can invoke the idea of truth-seeking in a much softer way as well, were its not necessarily intended to be “meta” but often will end up getting you there anyway.
Even when you are fully intending to “go meta”, I believe my advice still applies.