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Lumifer comments on Open thread, Sept. 1-7, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: polymathwannabe 01 September 2014 12:18PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 04 September 2014 05:31:23PM 1 point [-]

Well, that's what the just world hypothesis states.

Can you state it in less Biblical and more conventional and well-defined terms?

I doubt that the just world hypothesis specifies what kind of grain I can harvest after planting rye seeds and in a more general interpretation it boils down to "your actions will cause consequences" which is true but banal.

Comment author: Salemicus 04 September 2014 08:34:39PM 2 points [-]

As per Wikipedia:

The just-world hypothesis or just-world fallacy is the cognitive bias (or assumption) that a person's actions always bring morally fair and fitting consequences to that person, so that all noble actions are eventually rewarded and all evil actions are eventually punished... The hypothesis popularly appears in the English language in various figures of speech that imply guaranteed negative reprisal, such as: "You got what was coming to you", "What goes around comes around", and "You reap what you sow."

Comment author: Lumifer 04 September 2014 08:46:32PM 1 point [-]

If you accept this definition of the just-world hypothesis as a cognitive bias then your inquiry into whether it is true does not make any sense.

Comment author: VAuroch 04 September 2014 09:30:11PM 0 points [-]

Third party here, but I'd consider the just-world hypothesis something like the converse of the golden rule: The world will do unto you as you do unto others.

Comment author: Lumifer 05 September 2014 12:15:17AM 1 point [-]

So is that, essentially, the idea of karma?

Comment author: VAuroch 05 September 2014 12:44:25AM 0 points [-]

Karma is one flavor of it, yes.