timtyler comments on Only humans can have human values - Less Wrong

34 Post author: PhilGoetz 26 April 2010 06:57PM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 27 April 2010 04:41:20PM *  1 point [-]

The passage you quote is probably in the postscript to the 2nd edition, which, as I said in the post, denies the original content of the 1962 edition. Make outrageous statement, get media attention, get famous, then retain your new position by denying you ever meant the outrageous thing that you said in the first place. If he'd been that careful and subtle in the first edition, he might never have become famous.

Your memory for passages is remarkable.

Comment author: timtyler 18 May 2011 09:28:45AM *  1 point [-]

It is from the Postscript. That starts with:

Postscript: Revolutions and Relativism

One consequence of the position just outlined has particularly bothered a number of my critics. They find my viewpoint relativistic, particularly as it is developed in the last section of this book. My remarks about translation highlight the reasons for the charge. The proponents of different theories are like the members of different language-culture communities. Recognising the parallelism suggests that in some sense both groups may be right. Applied to culture and its development that position is relativistic.