A partial way to check would be to look at accounts by people who converted to Islam, especially if there weren’t external incentives—to what extent do they say they were convinced by reading the Koran, and to what extent were they convinced by knowing Muslims who impressed them or by sampling observances and finding a good fit?
Even then, Qur’an could work as the affective focus without being the source of affect, or adequately accounting for resulting extent of accumulated affect, even if contributing incrementally (not to unusual degree). There is also prestige you can’t control for. The main factor must be the anti-epistemic mode that allows the affect to run out of control, not the features accompanying the process of running out of control.
A partial way to check would be to look at accounts by people who converted to Islam, especially if there weren’t external incentives—to what extent do they say they were convinced by reading the Koran, and to what extent were they convinced by knowing Muslims who impressed them or by sampling observances and finding a good fit?
Even then, Qur’an could work as the affective focus without being the source of affect, or adequately accounting for resulting extent of accumulated affect, even if contributing incrementally (not to unusual degree). There is also prestige you can’t control for. The main factor must be the anti-epistemic mode that allows the affect to run out of control, not the features accompanying the process of running out of control.
^ I’m sorry, I have only just finished reading the How To Actually Change your mind sequence, and I am still currently unable to understand this post. Could you please say it a bit less technically for my convenience?.
See these concepts and posts linked from them:
http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Halo_effect
http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Affective_death_spiral
http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Anti-epistemology