thomblake comments on Pain - Less Wrong

32 Post author: Alicorn 02 August 2009 07:12PM

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Comment author: thomblake 04 August 2009 08:38:17PM 0 points [-]

Good meaning 'useful for a particular purpose', bad is its negation. Whether the middle is excluded might be a matter of contention.

Comment author: kess3r 04 August 2009 08:42:55PM 1 point [-]

What's 'useful'? What's 'purpose'?

Comment author: thomblake comment score below threshold [+] (5 children)

Comment author: kess3r 04 August 2009 09:23:59PM 4 points [-]

I am trying to make a point. One cannot infinitely regress one's explanations. At some point one starts engaging the brains' basic machinery. Avoiding pain is a drive coming from our basic machinery. It is possible to explain how humans evolved pain. But it is pointless to ask for justification for wanting to avoid pain.

Incidentally, English is not my first language.

Comment author: thomblake 04 August 2009 11:55:30PM * 1 point [-]

I am trying to make a point.

Ah. I suggest doing it differently next time. It is much clearer (and less deceptive) if you do not ask questions when you are trying to make a point. Instead, ask questions when you are curious about something and think someone has the answer, and use declarative statements (like those in the parent comment) to make a point. It should greatly aid in your communication.

Comment author: kess3r 05 August 2009 03:08:29PM 3 points [-]

I am trying to make a point AND I am curious about people's answers to my questions. These are not mutually exclusive. It is my style to ask many questions.

If I don't ask questions, I will have to make more assumptions about what you actually think. I don't want to make declarative statements as if I already know exactly what you think about a topic. That is how people end up talking past each other. They don't fully understand what the other one is trying to say.

Comment author: [deleted] 09 September 2011 06:30:36PM 2 points [-]

You're not a big fan of rhetorical questions, are you?

Comment author: thomblake 09 September 2011 06:34:38PM 2 points [-]

thomblake comments on Pain - Less Wrong

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