The obvious gap here is the process formative of the pre-given question digested by this methodology, that obviously being the most consequential step. How are such questions arrived at and by whom? It seems difficult for such questions to completely transcend the prejudices of the group giving rise to them, ergo, value should be attributed to the particular steps taken in their formation.
I have a related concern about boundary problems between questions. If you artificially individuate questions do you arrive at an appropriate view of the whole? i.e. the affect of one question on another, and the value of goods which have a small but significant positive influence across questions. I’m thinking particularly of second-order goods whose realisation will almost certainly benefit any possible future; like collective wisdom, moral virtue, world peace, and so forth. These issues clearly aren’t reducible to a single question about a particular type of career, or assimilable to an ‘expert common sense’. Or do you reject wide-spectrum goods at first principle because of analytic intractability?
I think you could use this methodology to focus your questions too. Start from something very broad like “what’s a good life”, then use the methodology to work out what the key sub-questions are within that question; and so on. My aim wasn’t, however, to give a full account of rational inquiry, starting from zero.
I also don’t see there being an especial neglect for second-order goods. Experts and common sense generally think these things are good, so they’ll come up in your assessment, even if you can’t further analyse them or quantify them.
The obvious gap here is the process formative of the pre-given question digested by this methodology, that obviously being the most consequential step. How are such questions arrived at and by whom? It seems difficult for such questions to completely transcend the prejudices of the group giving rise to them, ergo, value should be attributed to the particular steps taken in their formation.
I have a related concern about boundary problems between questions. If you artificially individuate questions do you arrive at an appropriate view of the whole? i.e. the affect of one question on another, and the value of goods which have a small but significant positive influence across questions. I’m thinking particularly of second-order goods whose realisation will almost certainly benefit any possible future; like collective wisdom, moral virtue, world peace, and so forth. These issues clearly aren’t reducible to a single question about a particular type of career, or assimilable to an ‘expert common sense’. Or do you reject wide-spectrum goods at first principle because of analytic intractability?
I think you could use this methodology to focus your questions too. Start from something very broad like “what’s a good life”, then use the methodology to work out what the key sub-questions are within that question; and so on. My aim wasn’t, however, to give a full account of rational inquiry, starting from zero.
I also don’t see there being an especial neglect for second-order goods. Experts and common sense generally think these things are good, so they’ll come up in your assessment, even if you can’t further analyse them or quantify them.