Yes, but unreliability does not mean that you instead just use vague words instead of explicit credences. It’s a fine critique to say that people make too many arguments without giving evidence (something I also disagree with, but that isn’t the subject of this thread), but you are concretely making the point that it’s additionally bad for them to give explicit credences! But the credences only help, compared to vague and ambiguous terms that people would use instead.
I’m not sure how you think that’s what I said. Here’s what I actually said:
A superforecaster’s credence can shift my credence significantly...
If the credence of a random person has any value to my own credence, it’s very low...
The evidence someone provides is far more important than someone’s credence (unless you know the person is highly calibrated and precise)...
[credences are] how people should think...
if you’re going to post your credence, provide some evidence so that you can update other people’s credences too.
I thought I was fairly clear about what my position is. Credences have internal value (you should generate your own credence). Superforecasters’ credences have external value (their credence should update yours). Uncalibrated random people’s credences don’t have much external value (they shouldn’t shift your credence much). And an argument for your credence should always be given.
I never said vague words are valuable, and in fact I think the opposite.
This is an empirical question. Again, what is the reference class for people providing opinions without having evidence? We could look at all of the unsupported credences on the forum and see how accurate they turned out to be. My guess is that they’re of very little value, for all the reasons I gave in previous comments.
you are concretely making the point that it’s additionally bad for them to give explicit credences!
I demonstrated a situation where a credence without evidence is harmful:
If we have different credences and the set of things I’ve considered is a strict subset of yours, you might update your credence because you mistakenly think I’ve considered something you haven’t.
The only way we can avoid such a situation is either by providing a supporting argument for our credences, OR not updating our credences in light of other people’s unsupported credences.
Yes, but unreliability does not mean that you instead just use vague words instead of explicit credences. It’s a fine critique to say that people make too many arguments without giving evidence (something I also disagree with, but that isn’t the subject of this thread), but you are concretely making the point that it’s additionally bad for them to give explicit credences! But the credences only help, compared to vague and ambiguous terms that people would use instead.
I’m not sure how you think that’s what I said. Here’s what I actually said:
I thought I was fairly clear about what my position is. Credences have internal value (you should generate your own credence). Superforecasters’ credences have external value (their credence should update yours). Uncalibrated random people’s credences don’t have much external value (they shouldn’t shift your credence much). And an argument for your credence should always be given.
I never said vague words are valuable, and in fact I think the opposite.
This is an empirical question. Again, what is the reference class for people providing opinions without having evidence? We could look at all of the unsupported credences on the forum and see how accurate they turned out to be. My guess is that they’re of very little value, for all the reasons I gave in previous comments.
I demonstrated a situation where a credence without evidence is harmful:
The only way we can avoid such a situation is either by providing a supporting argument for our credences, OR not updating our credences in light of other people’s unsupported credences.