Nick_Tarleton comments on You're Entitled to Arguments, But Not (That Particular) Proof - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (221)
Defensibility and wanting-to-retain-beliefs both seem likely, but seem to me to be different things. Also, a third thing (or perhaps a variant of wanting-to-retain-beliefs) that I think is often involved is wanting-not-to-be-fooled: someone believing that, unconstrained by empirical evidence, a seemingly plausible argument can be constructed for anything, so they'd better not even start to consider any argument for a contrarian position (especially one that favors unusual actions) lest they be exploited either by deliberate trickery or by a parasitic meme.