One exercise we worked through was resolving free will, which is apparently an ancient rationalist tradition. Suppose that Asher drives by a cliff on their way to work but didn’t swerve. The conflicting intuitions are “Asher felt like they could have chosen to swerve off the cliff”, and “the universe is deterministic, so Asher could not have swerved off the cliff”. But to me, this felt like a confusion about the definition of the word “could”, and not some exciting conflict—it’s probably only exciting when you’re in a certain mindset. [edit: I elaborate in a comment]
Becoming deconfused doesn’t have to mean a) finding the one right answer. It can also mean b) there is more than on the right answer c) there are no right answers.
EYs “dissolution” of free will is very much an a)type: the universe is deterministic , so thefeeling of free will is illusory.
An actual deconfusion would notice that you can’t tell whether the universe is deterministic by armchair reflection. And that “Asher could have swerved because the universe isn’t deterministic” is another consistent solution.( Only being able to see one so!union feels like lack of confusion, but isnt).
EY pushes an a) type solution without disproving a b) type (dis)solution. The correct approach includes an element of “more research is needed” as well as an element of “depends on what you mean by”.
The situation with decision theory is similar … there needs to be, but there isnt, a debate on whether a single DT can work for every possible agent in every possible universe.
Becoming deconfused doesn’t have to mean a) finding the one right answer. It can also mean b) there is more than on the right answer c) there are no right answers.
EYs “dissolution” of free will is very much an a)type: the universe is deterministic , so thefeeling of free will is illusory.
An actual deconfusion would notice that you can’t tell whether the universe is deterministic by armchair reflection. And that “Asher could have swerved because the universe isn’t deterministic” is another consistent solution.( Only being able to see one so!union feels like lack of confusion, but isnt).
EY pushes an a) type solution without disproving a b) type (dis)solution. The correct approach includes an element of “more research is needed” as well as an element of “depends on what you mean by”.
The situation with decision theory is similar … there needs to be, but there isnt, a debate on whether a single DT can work for every possible agent in every possible universe.