Open Thread for February 11 - 17

Scott Garrabrant

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Something I recently noticed: steelmanning is popular on LessWrong. But the sequences contain a post called Against Devil's Advocacy, which argues strongly against devil's advocacy, and steelmanning often looks a lot like devil's advocacy. What, if anything is the difference between the two?

Steelmanning is about fixing errors in an argument (or otherwise improving it), while retaining (some of) the argument's assumptions. As a result, the argument becomes better, even if you disagree with some of the assumptions. The conclusion of the argument may change as a result, what's fixed about the conclusion is only the question that it needs to clarify. Devil's advocacy is about finding arguments for a given conclusion, including fallacious but convincing ones.

So the difference is in the direction of reasoning and intent regarding epistemic hygiene.... (read more)

6Jayson_Virissimo12y

As far as I can tell...nothing. Most likely, there are simply many LessWrongers (like me) that disagree with E.Y. on this point.

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Open Thread for February 11 - 17

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If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

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Open Thread for February 11 - 17

5

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

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