Vladimir_Nesov comments on Open Thread: April 2010 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Unnamed 01 April 2010 03:21PM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 09 April 2010 04:23:13PM *  1 point [-]

It's unlikely enough that you'll go crazy; it's still more unlikely that you'll go crazy in such a way that your future depends on immediately and decisively noticing that you're mad.

I'm talking about not interpreting intuitive "feel" for a belief as literally representing consciously endorsed level of belief. It's perfectly normal for your emotion to be at odds with your beliefs (see scope insensitivity for example). This kind of madness doesn't imply being less functional than average. We are all mad here. If you feel that "magic might be real", but at the same time believe that "magic can't be real, no chance", you shouldn't take the side of the feeling. The feeling might constitute new evidence for your beliefs to take into account, but the final judgment has to involve conscious interpretation, you shouldn't act on emotion directly. And sometimes, this means acting against emotion (intuitive expectation). In this case in particular, intuition is weak evidence, so it doesn't overpower a belief that magic isn't real, even if it's strong intuition.