Tyrrell_McAllister comments on Logical Rudeness - Less Wrong

65 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 January 2010 06:48AM

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Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 29 January 2010 06:17:29PM *  3 points [-]

The rudeness that Eliezer is talking about seems different from the rudeness that Suber is talking about.

What Eliezer is talking about might be grouped under the heading "Failure to keep score." The interlocutor refuses to acknowledge that a point has been undermined. Maybe the interlocutor pretends that the point was never made. Or maybe the interlocutor returns to the point as though it had never been undermined.

What Suber is talking about is the kind of rudeness where you refuse to play the game altogether. In reply to arguments, you don't even pretend to address them. Instead, you say, "According to my position, I don't even need to address your arguments on their merits."

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 January 2010 07:55:12PM 2 points [-]

I'm generalizing Suber's lovely term in a way that seems appropriate; if he actually objects to this, I'll find a different term. But it seems that once you go so far as to coin a lovely term like "logically rude", then doing nothing but questioning the other person's motives is just a specialized kind of logical rudeness.

Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 29 January 2010 09:17:50PM 0 points [-]

Just to be clear, I myself wasn't objecting.