= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
hyporational comments on Dangers of steelmanning / principle of charity - 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 (91)
I think it would be useful to identify subcategories of what people mean by steelmanning and then see if we can approve some of those.
"Bad" steelmanning: a form of misunderstanding your opponent (as in the Roman example).
"Good" steelmanning: marshalling the best form of the argument against your position and defeating it. Also known as charitable interpretation.
I don't think steelmanning is particularly dangerous. It should be quite easy to recognize and avoid "bad" steelmanning, which is the whole source of the danger. If the Roman is truly a rationalist, he should be aware of his very limited knowledge of the modern society and the dangers of substituting an argument in his situation. Steelmanning in his situation is a clear example of irrational behavior.
I think it's also steelmanning if you don't end up defeating the improved argument.