Perplexed comments on What Science got Wrong and Why - Less Wrong

6 Post author: JoshuaZ 25 November 2010 02:12AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 25 November 2010 05:58:40PM *  1 point [-]

George Lakoff attacks "the claims of enlightenment reason" and presents "the realities". At first I though he was attacking rationality, but some translation shows the opposite. Heavy quoting of his blurb, ahead.

"enlightenment reason, which claims that if you just tell people the facts about their interests, they will reason to the right conclusion, since reason is supposed to universal, logical, and based on self-interest" In some sense, what he calls "reason" we call biases.

"Claim: Reason can fit the world directly." - Here we say: "the map is not the territory"

"Claim: Thought is conscious. But neuroscience shows that is about 98 percent unconscious." - We might say the brain uses heuristics.

"Claim: Language is neutral, and can fit the world directly." - Debunking this is a key part of Lakoff's research. He argues that the structure of language shapes our thoughts. I can't immediately think of a directly comparable line of thought on Less Wrong. http://lesswrong.com/lw/od/37_ways_that_words_can_be_wrong/ seems a little different, but maybe someone else can see the connection more easily.

Comment author: Perplexed 26 November 2010 12:34:58AM 4 points [-]

Also from Lakoff:

Much of liberal thought uses enlightenment reason, which claims that if you just tell people the facts about their interests, they will reason to the right conclusion, since reason is supposed to universal, logical, and based on self-interest. The Obama administration assumed that in its policy discourse, and that assumption led to the debacle of the 2010 elections.

Gee, I'll bet he has a clever explanation of the 2008 election too.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 26 November 2010 04:22:45AM 1 point [-]

Gee, I'll bet he has a clever explanation of the 2008 election too.

And I suspect in 2012, no matter what happens he'll have a very good explanation. And 2014, etc. etc. You think he might need to read the sequences just a bit?

Comment author: groupuscule 30 November 2010 10:38:35AM 0 points [-]

It's a living.

Comment author: David_Gerard 30 November 2010 01:03:53PM 0 points [-]

At this point I suspect he's applying the Litany of Upton Sinclair.