wonderful post, I agree very much. I have also encountered this—being accused of being overconfident when actually I was talking about things of which I am quite uncertain (strange, isn’t it?).
And the people who “accuse” indeed usually only have one (their favourite) alternative model enshrouded in a language of “mystery, awe, and humbleness”.
I have found out (the hard way) that being a rationalist will force you into fighting an uphill battle even in an academic setting (your post Science isn’t strict enough addresses this problem also).
But I think that it is even worse than people not knowing how to handle uncertainty (well, it probably depends on the audience). A philosophy professor here in Vienna told me about a year ago that “many people already take offense when being presented a reasoned-out/logical argument.”
Maybe you (Eli) are being accused of being overconfident because you speak clearly, you lay down your premises, and look at what is being entailed without getting sidetracked by “common” (but often false) knowledge. You use the method of rationality, and, it seems, there are many who take offense already at this. The strange thing is: the more you try to argue logically (the more you try to show that you are not being “overconfident” but that you have reasoned this through, considered counterarguments etc) the more annoyed some people get.
I have witnessed quite some discussions where it was clear to me that many of the discussants did not know what they where talking about (but stringing together “right-sounding” words), and it seems that a lot of people feel quite comfortable in this wishy-washy atmosphere. Clear speech threatens this cosy milieu.
I have not yet understood why people are at odds with rationality. Maybe it is because they feel the uncertainty inherent in their own knowledge, and they try to guard their favourite theories with “general uncertainty”—they know that under a rational approach, many of their favourite theories would go down the probabilistic drain—so they prefer to keep everything vague.
A rationalist must be prepared to give up his most cherished beliefs, and—excepting those who were born into a rationalist family—all of us who aspire to be rationalists must give up cherished (childhood) beliefs. This causes quite some anxiety.
If someone fears, for whatever reasons (or unreasons), to embark upon this journey of being rational, maybe the easiest cop-out is calling the rationalist “overconfident”.
Eli,
wonderful post, I agree very much. I have also encountered this—being accused of being overconfident when actually I was talking about things of which I am quite uncertain (strange, isn’t it?).
And the people who “accuse” indeed usually only have one (their favourite) alternative model enshrouded in a language of “mystery, awe, and humbleness”.
I have found out (the hard way) that being a rationalist will force you into fighting an uphill battle even in an academic setting (your post Science isn’t strict enough addresses this problem also).
But I think that it is even worse than people not knowing how to handle uncertainty (well, it probably depends on the audience). A philosophy professor here in Vienna told me about a year ago that “many people already take offense when being presented a reasoned-out/logical argument.”
Maybe you (Eli) are being accused of being overconfident because you speak clearly, you lay down your premises, and look at what is being entailed without getting sidetracked by “common” (but often false) knowledge. You use the method of rationality, and, it seems, there are many who take offense already at this. The strange thing is: the more you try to argue logically (the more you try to show that you are not being “overconfident” but that you have reasoned this through, considered counterarguments etc) the more annoyed some people get.
I have witnessed quite some discussions where it was clear to me that many of the discussants did not know what they where talking about (but stringing together “right-sounding” words), and it seems that a lot of people feel quite comfortable in this wishy-washy atmosphere. Clear speech threatens this cosy milieu.
I have not yet understood why people are at odds with rationality. Maybe it is because they feel the uncertainty inherent in their own knowledge, and they try to guard their favourite theories with “general uncertainty”—they know that under a rational approach, many of their favourite theories would go down the probabilistic drain—so they prefer to keep everything vague.
A rationalist must be prepared to give up his most cherished beliefs, and—excepting those who were born into a rationalist family—all of us who aspire to be rationalists must give up cherished (childhood) beliefs. This causes quite some anxiety.
If someone fears, for whatever reasons (or unreasons), to embark upon this journey of being rational, maybe the easiest cop-out is calling the rationalist “overconfident”.