Kingreaper comments on Defense Against The Dark Arts: Case Study #1 - Less Wrong

100 Post author: Yvain 28 March 2009 02:31AM

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Comment author: Kingreaper 14 December 2010 03:42:50AM *  7 points [-]

How do you know you have mastered this art? When the statements

In his youth, Steve Jobs went to India to be enlightened. After seeing that the nation claiming to be the source of this great spiritual knowledge was full of hunger, ignorance, squalor, poverty, prejudice, and disease, he came back and said that the East should look to the West for enlightenment.

and

For complex historical reasons, the average Westerner is richer than the average Indian. Therefore, there is minimal possibility that any Indian people ever discovered interesting mental techniques.

sound exactly alike.

But they are not exactly alike. Ignorance and prejudice are not simply functions of wealth.

Comment author: Kingreaper 14 December 2010 03:43:48AM 10 points [-]

Additionally, saying that the East should look to the West for enlightenment doesn't mean there is no enlightenment to be found in the East. It just says that by far the more important enlightment is more common in the West than the East.

Imagine there are two men: Bob, and Sean. Sean knows a great deal about up home entertainment systems. Bob knows a great deal about plumbing, electricals, roofing, and windows.

If I go to both of their houses, and Sean has a home entertainment system set up perfectly, but no power getting to it, and his ceiling drips in the rain, and his window in his bedroom is shattered, I'd say Sean should look to Bob for DIY help.

Sure, Bob could learn from Sean, Bob's home entertainment system is shoddy. But Sean should be the one looking to Bob for help.

Comment author: faul_sname 06 January 2012 06:02:36AM 2 points [-]

However, the fact that Sean could learn a lot from Bob is irrelevant when referring to Bob's desire to improve his own knowledge. It is quite relevant to an outside observer who can influence Sean and Bob, but that wasn't really the situation in question.

Comment author: HungryTurtle 21 April 2012 02:22:06AM 0 points [-]

Additionally, saying that the East should look to the West for enlightenment doesn't mean there is no enlightenment to be found in the East. It just says that by far the more important enlightenment is more common in the West than the East.

Actually saying that the East should look to the West for enlightenment says nothing about where enlightenment is more or less common, or anything about a degree of enlightenment. This is the assumption you are bringing to the statement. All this statement implies are there are things that the East could learn from the West, with no implication about how many things there are, or as was pointed out above, how many things there are in the East for the West to learn about.

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