Comment on Explanations for Less Wrong articles that you didn't understand

Sun, 06 Apr 2014 20:06:37 GMT

It would probably help to have a link to specific people/books who have inspired specific sections, to see how much they were strawmanned.

Yes, it would, but I am no expert in the area, hence my question here.

what if someone's map contains a large text "there is no such thing as territory"?

Well, mine does, but I am quite happy to get by with a sequence of ever-more predictive (you would call them accurate) maps. One can certainly avoid relying on the map/territory metaphysics and still behave at least as rationally as someone who does. However, I agree that

"how do you even know there is such thing as a reality or truth?"

is generally a copout in reply to an argument someone is willing but unable to counter and thus holds no value when used for this purpose only. Presumably Mark in the story is one of those, though grotesquely strawmanned:

“But what’s the actual answer?”

“Now, I’d like to move on to the issue of how logic kills cute baby seals -”

Discuss