Benquo comments on Rationality Quotes: October 2009 - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 October 2009 04:06PM

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Comment author: Benquo 22 October 2009 08:05:27PM 9 points [-]

This kind of sentiment pops up in Plato a lot, esp. in discussions of rhetoric, like here in Gorgias:

"For I count being refuted a greater good, insofar as it is a greater good to be rid of the greatest evil from oneself than to rid someone else of it. I don't suppose that any evil for a man is as great as false belief about the things we're discussing right now." (458a, Zeyl Translation)

Comment author: Psychohistorian 22 October 2009 11:57:45PM *  0 points [-]

Excellent point. This concept goes squarely with much of Socrates' philosophy: the wise men knew nothing, and he knew nothing, but he knew it and they didn't, thus, he was the wisest man alive, as the oracle had said.