TheOtherDave comments on Your Rationality is My Business - Less Wrong

50 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 April 2007 07:31AM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 23 October 2010 03:04:38PM 4 points [-]

I sympathize with this conclusion. I may even agree with it.

That said, the argument rests heavily on the rhetorical equation of "daring to criticize others' decisions" with strengthening "the human pursuit of Truth," and ultimately seeks to justify the former by invoking the value of the latter. Along the way it tosses in "arguing against bad ideas" and "convincing people" and treats them all as roughly interchangeable.

I'm not sure that's justified. There are differences, and they matter.

To put it bluntly, I suspect you're rationalizing.

Criticizing people -- especially in public -- has a social cost; so does arguing against bad ideas. If the primary payoff is the chance of convincing them (or listeners) and thereby advancing the cause of Truth, it's worth looking for less expensive methods for buying that payoff.

I think most of us would do that more, except that argument is in certain contexts is also a very good social capital investment strategy.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, any more than there's anything intrinsically wrong with making money in the stock market. But to claim that one's primary reason for playing the markets is to advance the cause of Capitalism is disingenuous.

There are payoffs here besides Truth, and to pretend otherwise is itself a source of darkness.