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Pablo_Stafforini comments on Why do you really believe what you believe regarding controversial subjects? - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: iarwain1 04 January 2015 02:32PM

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Comment author: Pablo_Stafforini 05 January 2015 09:43:24PM *  2 points [-]

For myself, I generally try not to have an opinion on almost any controversial issue.

Many issues that are now relatively uncontroversial where once controversial, or are still controversial in other parts of the world. Do you also suspend judgment about such issues? Is your reference class the roughly 100 billion people that have ever lived?

Comment author: iarwain1 06 January 2015 01:20:42AM -1 points [-]

That depends on if I think modern / first-world society has significant reason to claim epistemic superiority over their past / third-world counterparts. In most areas of thought there's a concept of progress and building on the accomplishments of the past, and to a very large degree the experts that benefited the most from that progress are concentrated in first-world countries.

Comment author: Pablo_Stafforini 06 January 2015 05:47:47PM *  2 points [-]

There are innumerable indicators of epistemic superiority in addition to physical or temporal location, and some of these are arguably more reliable. I'm skeptical that the topics that your society regards as "controversial" will coincide with those that you'd be warranted in suspending judgment about in deference to your epistemic superiors.

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