Alan comments on The Importance of Self-Doubt - Less Wrong

23 Post author: multifoliaterose 19 August 2010 10:47PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 20 August 2010 01:04:16AM * 4 points [-]

A few unrelated points:

I tend to agree with you on the first section, but I think I'm less confident about it than you are. :)
What is a genuinely utilitarian lifestyle? Is there someone you can cite as living such a lifestyle?
I'm not sure what you're talking about in the last sentence. Prevent what from happening to Eliezer? Failing to lose hope when he should? (He wrote a post about that, BTW.)

Comment author: Alan 20 August 2010 03:48:10AM 1 point [-]

Jeremy Bentham may be a candidate, or perhaps James Mill, father of J.S. Mill--though there's been some recent speculation that the former fell somewhere on the autism spectrum (no slight intended). By the way, if you're interested, check out the research on shifting modes of moral congition, deontological vs. consequentialist, depending upon subject matter, featured in the work of David Pizarro, e.g. Further afield, one may check out what Taleb has to say about who has led a genuinely Popperian lifestyle.

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