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handoflixue comments on How to deal with non-realism? - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: loup-vaillant 22 May 2012 01:58PM

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Comment author: handoflixue 22 May 2012 07:31:00PM 4 points [-]

Agreed - I've found that most people do have fairly solid anticipations, even when they refuse to accept a realist philosophy.

Failing that, it's their fault for perceiving that hammer in the first place, am I right? ;)

Comment author: TheOtherDave 22 May 2012 08:19:44PM 2 points [-]

Clearly, since we create our own realities, we are responsible for all the hammers that smash into our skulls.

More seriously: well, I don't know about most people... but yeah, close enough.

I have found that people whose anticipations are substantially different from mine on simple quotidian experiences either tend to encapsulate those special anticipated experiences in hypothetical conditionals that are never actually actualized (e.g., "Well, I don't know that I'll get the number three if I count the coins in that cup, maybe you're a stage magician or God removed them or I'll make a mistake in counting or whatever") or tend to genuinely have expectations that make me cringe (e.g., they really do take seriously the possibility of underpants gnomes). The latter group are usually receiving psychiatric care of some kind or another.