mikerpiker comments on Less Wrong Q&A with Eliezer Yudkowsky: Ask Your Questions - Less Wrong

16 Post author: MichaelGR 11 November 2009 03:00AM

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Comment author: Jack 16 November 2009 10:18:16PM *  4 points [-]

My answer to this depends on what you mean by "professional philosophers who think about". You have to be aware that subfields have selection biases. For example, the percent of philosophers of religion who think God exists is much, much larger than the percent of professional philosophers generally who think God exists. This is because if God does not exist philosophy of religion ceases to be a productive area of research. Conversely, if you have an irrational attachment to the idea that God exists this than you are likely to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to prove one exists. This issue is particularly bad with regard to religion but it is in some sense generalizable to all or most other subfields. Philosophy is also a competitive enterprise and there are various incentives to publishing novel arguments. This means in any given subfield views that are unpopular among philosophers generally will be overrepresented.

So the circle you draw around "professional philosophers who think about [subfield x] questions" needs to be small enough to target experts but large enough that you don't limit your survey to those philosophers who are very likely to hold a view you are surveying in virtue of the area they work in. I think the right circle is something like 'professional philosophers who are equipped to teach an advanced undergraduate course in the subject'.

Edit: The free will question will depend on what you want out of a conception of free will. But the understanding of free will that most lay people have is totally impossible.

Comment author: mikerpiker 17 November 2009 04:30:52AM 0 points [-]

Jack:

I think I agree with everything you say in response to my original post.

It seems like you basically agree with me that facts about the opinions of philosophers who work in some area (where this group is suitibly defined to avoid the difficulties you point out) should be important to us if we are trying to figure out what to believe in that area.

Why aren't studies being carried out to find out what these facts are? Do you think most philosophers would not agree that they are important?

Comment author: Jack 23 November 2009 10:02:22PM 1 point [-]

Yeah, I've felt for a while now that philosophers should do a better job explaining and popularizing the conclusions they come to. I've never been able to find literature reviews or meta-analysis, either. Part of the problem is definitely that a lot of philosophers are skeptical that they have anything true or interesting to say to non-philosophers. Also, despite some basic agreements about what is definitely wrong philosophers, at least with a lot of issues have so many different views that it wouldn't be very educational to poll them. Also, a lot of philosophy involves conceptual analysis and since it is really hard to poll a philosophical issue without resorting to concepts you might have a lot of respondents refusing to accept the premises of the question.

But none of these arguments are very good. If I ever make it in the field I'll put one together.