Desrtopa comments on What do professional philosophers believe, and why? - Less Wrong

31 Post author: RobbBB 01 May 2013 02:40PM

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Comment author: Jack 01 May 2013 03:51:13PM 15 points [-]

Philosophers working in decision theory are drastically worse at Newcomb than are other philosophers, two-boxing 70.38% of the time where non-specialists two-box 59.07% of the time (normalized after getting rid of 'Other' answers). Philosophers of religion are the most likely to get questions about religion wrong — 79.13% are theists (compared to 13.22% of non-specialists), and they tend strongly toward the Anti-Naturalism cluster. Non-aestheticians think aesthetic value is objective 53.64% of the time; aestheticians think it's objective 73.88% of the time. Working in epistemology tends to make you an internalist, philosophy of science tends to make you a Humean, metaphysics a Platonist, ethics a deontologist.

If you don't believe something exists it is unlikely that you are going to dedicate your life to studying it. This explains the theism, aesthetic objectivism and the Platonism. Similarly, if you believe a question has a very simple answer that does not need to be fleshed out you are unlikely to dedicate your life to answering it. This explains the deontology and the internalism. And Humeanism is still a minority view among philosophers of science (I also wonder if Humeans about laws exactly overlap with Humeans about causality-- I suspect some of the former might not hold the latter view).

I would also be hesitant to assume LW is more likely to be right about these matters when they aren't things LW has thought much about. E.g. I'm pretty modern Platonism is actually true.

Comment author: IlyaShpitser 01 May 2013 04:01:38PM 7 points [-]

Philosophers working in decision theory are drastically worse at Newcomb

Listen, this is like someone who believes the Axiom of Choice saying "constructivist mathematicians are drastically worse at set theory" (because they reject Choice). Newcomb is all about how you view free will. This is not a settled question yet.

Comment author: Desrtopa 01 May 2013 11:01:06PM 0 points [-]

I would be interested in seeing how philosophers do on tests of analytical versus intuitive reasoning (I forget the name of the test normally used for gauging this) and ability to narrow down hypotheses when the answers are known and easily verifiable.

Comment author: JonathanLivengood 02 May 2013 06:07:18AM 2 points [-]

We do pretty well, actually (pdf). (Though I think this is a selection effect, not a positive effect of training.)

Comment author: satt 02 May 2013 02:42:18AM 2 points [-]

I would be interested in seeing how philosophers do on tests of analytical versus intuitive reasoning (I forget the name of the test normally used for gauging this)

Cognitive Reflection Test?

Comment author: Desrtopa 02 May 2013 02:47:40AM 2 points [-]

That was the one, thanks.