= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
David_Gerard comments on Less Wrong Rationality and Mainstream Philosophy - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (328)
What's wrong with behaviorism? I was under the impression that behaviorism was outdated but when my daughter was diagnosed as speech-delayed and borderline autistic we started researching therapy options. The people with the best results and the best studies (those doing 'applied behavior analysis') seem to be pretty much unreconstructed Skinnerists. And my daughter is making good progress now.
I'll take flawed philosophy with good results over the opposite any day of the week. But I'm still curious about flaws in the philosophy.
Personally, I'm finding that avoiding anthropomorphising humans, i.e. ignoring the noises coming out of their mouths in favour of watching their actions, pays off quite well, particularly when applied to myself ;-) I call this the "lump of lard with buttons to push" theory of human motivation. Certainly if my mind had much effect on my behaviour, I'd expect to see more evidence than I do ...
I take exception to that: I have a skeletal structure, dammit!
I think the reference is to the brain rather than to the whole body.
(blink)
(nods) Yes, indeed.
Exception withdrawn.
Well played!
It sounds like what you are describing is rationalization, either doing it yourself or accepting people's rationalization about themselves.
Pretty much. I'm saying "mind" for effect, and because people think the bit that says "I" has much more effect than it appears to from observed behaviour.
Yep. Anthropomorphizing humans is a disasterously wrong thing to do. Too bad everyone does it.
No, they just look like they're doing it; saying humans are athropomorphizing would attribute more intentionality to humans than is justified by the data.
Well, the mind seems to. I'm using "mind" here to mean the bit that says "I" and could reflect on itself it if it bothered to and thinks it runs the show and comes up with rationalisations for whatever it does. Listening to these rationalisations, promises, etc. as anything other than vague pointers to behaviour is exceedingly foolish. Occasionally you can encourage the person to use their "mind" less annoyingly.
I think they anthropomorphise as some sort of default reflex. Possibly somewhere halfway down the spinal cord, certainly not around the cerebrum.
I may be wrong, but I think that SilasBarta is pointing out, maybe with some tongue-in-cheek, that you can't accuse humans of anthropomorphizing other humans without yourself being guilty of anthropomorphizing those humans whom you accuse.
Edit: Looks like this was the intended reading.
I am finding benefits from trying not to anthropomorphise myself. That is, rather than thinking of my mind as being in control of my actions, I think of myself as a blob of lard which behaves in certain ways. This has actually been a more useful model, so that my mind (which appears to be involved in typing this, though I am quite ready to be persuaded otherwise) can get the things it thinks it wants to happen happening.
I was joking. :-P
Ha ha only serious ;-p
Is this an example? I've been working on paying attention to intention. If I know someone cares about me, but is expressing it poorly, I try to focus on their intent rather than their expression of that intent.
I'd watch their behaviour, which I would also have classed as expression of the intent. Do they show they care? That being the thing you actually want.