When it comes to instrumental and epistemic rationality which of these two groups on average has better performance?
I would expect the cynics to do better epistemically, and the idealists to do better instrumentally. That’s what current science tells us to expect, anyway. (i.e., the pessimistic cynics will have more accurate beliefs, but the optimistic idealists will actually accomplish more of their goals.)
I would expect the cynics to do better epistemically, and the idealists to do better instrumentally. That’s what current science tells us to expect, anyway. (i.e., the pessimistic cynics will have more accurate beliefs, but the optimistic idealists will actually accomplish more of their goals.)
[citation needed] (but without the connotation of “I don’t believe that”—more like “I’d like to read more about that”).
See Seligman’s book, “Learned Optimism”. Lots of references there about realism of pessimists vs. success of optimists.