You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

David_Gerard comments on The failure of counter-arguments argument - Less Wrong Discussion

14 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 10 July 2013 01:38PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (43)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: David_Gerard 10 July 2013 07:37:01PM *  2 points [-]

Yes, I know they're wronger than a wrong thing (hence my using them as a counterexample - and, of course, that you used them in your post), but you haven't shown the difference in the shape of the reasoning applied: your proposed razor doesn't work well on beliefs held on a level below rational consideration (rational consideration being something that many creationists can do quite well, if sufficiently compartmentalised away from their protected beliefs).

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 11 July 2013 08:43:10AM 1 point [-]

I'm not sure I get your point here, sorry!

I'm trying to think of ways that rational people can use to evaluate claims, not ways that can be used rhetorically to convince people in general...

Comment author: David_Gerard 11 July 2013 11:11:51AM 3 points [-]

My point is to warn people who want to be rational of a failure mode that makes this razor not something to be relied upon precisely when they hold the belief in question strongly.

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 11 July 2013 11:24:50AM *  3 points [-]

Ok, I see the point, and agree it's an issue.