Arjun Panickssery(ModusTrollens)

Karma: 955

Just Say No to Utilitarianism

Arjun Panickssery3 Jun 2022 22:59 UTC

3 points

0 comments1 min readLW link

(arjunpanickssery.substack.com)

[Review] The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer

Arjun Panickssery25 Aug 2022 5:18 UTC

30 points

22 comments12 min readLW link

(arjunpanickssery.substack.com)

Arjun Panickssery 25 Aug 2022 15:34 UTC
9 points
3
in reply to: deepthoughtlife’s comment on: [Review] The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer
In these proposals, what is to stop these security forces from simply conquering anyone and everyone that isn’t under the protection of one? Nothing. Security forces have no reason to fight each other to protect your right not to belong to one. And they will conquer, since the ones that don’t, won’t grow to keep pace. It is thus the same as the example given of a job offer you can’t refuse, except that here the deal offered likely is terrible (since they have no reason to give you a good one.).
Channeling Huemer, I’d say that the world’s states are in a kind of anarchy and they don’t simply gobble each other up all the time.

Arjun Panickssery 26 Aug 2022 8:33 UTC
7 points
2
in reply to: jaspax’s comment on: [Review] The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer
The prime example of this is the relation between parents and children
For what it’s worth, I would not be surprised if Huemer argued that children have no general obligation to obey their parents.

The Biggest Problem with Deontology: The Aggregation Problem

Arjun Panickssery8 Oct 2022 3:41 UTC

21 points

4 comments3 min readLW link

(arjunpanickssery.substack.com)

Consider working more hours and taking more stimulants

Arjun Panickssery15 Dec 2022 20:38 UTC

36 points

11 comments1 min readLW link

Arjun Panickssery 12 Jan 2023 21:12 UTC
11 points
5
on: Notes on writing
Second the recommendation for Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style. His own summary here: https://davidlabaree.com/2021/07/08/pinker-why-academics-stink-at-writing/
The guiding metaphor of classic style is seeing the world. The writer can see something that the reader has not yet noticed, and he orients the reader so she can see for herself. The purpose of writing is presentation, and its motive is disinterested truth. It succeeds when it aligns language with truth, the proof of success being clarity and simplicity. The truth can be known and is not the same as the language that reveals it; prose is a window onto the world. The writer knows the truth before putting it into words; he is not using the occasion of writing to sort out what he thinks. The writer and the reader are equals: The reader can recognize the truth when she sees it, as long as she is given an unobstructed view. And the process of directing the reader’s gaze takes the form of a conversation.
Most academic writing, in contrast, is a blend of two styles. The first is practical style, in which the writer’s goal is to satisfy a reader’s need for a particular kind of information, and the form of the communication falls into a fixed template, such as the five-paragraph student essay or the standardized structure of a scientific article. The second is a style that Thomas and Turner call self-conscious, relativistic, ironic, or postmodern, in which “the writer’s chief, if unstated, concern is to escape being convicted of philosophical naïveté about his own enterprise.”