This might be the lowest karma post that I’ve given a significant review vote for. (I’m currently giving it a 4). I’d highly encourage folk to give it A Think.
This post seems to be asking an important question of how to integrate truthseeking and conflict theory. I think this is probably one of the most important questions in the world. Conflict is inevitable. Truthseeking is really important. They are in tension. What do we do about that?
I think this is an important civilizational question. Most people don’t care nearly enough about truthseeking in the first place. The people who do care a lot about truthseeking tend to prefer avoiding conflict, i.e. tend to be “mistake theory” types.
Regular warfare is costly/terrible and should be avoided at all costs… but, “never” is just not an actually workable answer. Similarly, deception is very costly, in ways both obvious and subtle. One of my updates during the 2019 Review was that it is plausible that “don’t lie” is actually even more important than “don’t kill” (despite those normally being reversed in in my commonsense morality). But, like violent warfare, the answer of “never” feels like an overly simplified answer to “when is it acceptable to lie?”
This is not necessarily an endorsement of any particular point made here, only that I think the question is important. I think people who gravitate towards “truthseeking above all else” have a distaste for conflict theory. Unfortunately, I trust them more than most conflict theorists on how to develop norms around truthtelling that hold up under extreme conflict.
This might be the lowest karma post that I’ve given a significant review vote for. (I’m currently giving it a 4). I’d highly encourage folk to give it A Think.
This post seems to be asking an important question of how to integrate truthseeking and conflict theory. I think this is probably one of the most important questions in the world. Conflict is inevitable. Truthseeking is really important. They are in tension. What do we do about that?
I think this is an important civilizational question. Most people don’t care nearly enough about truthseeking in the first place. The people who do care a lot about truthseeking tend to prefer avoiding conflict, i.e. tend to be “mistake theory” types.
Regular warfare is costly/terrible and should be avoided at all costs… but, “never” is just not an actually workable answer. Similarly, deception is very costly, in ways both obvious and subtle. One of my updates during the 2019 Review was that it is plausible that “don’t lie” is actually even more important than “don’t kill” (despite those normally being reversed in in my commonsense morality). But, like violent warfare, the answer of “never” feels like an overly simplified answer to “when is it acceptable to lie?”
Eliezer’s discussion of meta-honesty explores one subset of how to firm up honesty aroun the edges. I like Gentzel’s post here for pointing in a broader direction
This is not necessarily an endorsement of any particular point made here, only that I think the question is important. I think people who gravitate towards “truthseeking above all else” have a distaste for conflict theory. Unfortunately, I trust them more than most conflict theorists on how to develop norms around truthtelling that hold up under extreme conflict.