I had a very similar reaction. Here’s a comment I’d previously offered in response to this idea:
I think “sceptical critiques” tend to be less good and useful, on average than “impassive, unbiased questioning”. Commissioning critiques is especially awkward, because then authors have to stick with the X is bad conclusion, even if that’s not where their investigation leads them. A better framing IMO is to say that you want people to question major premises, arguments, and conclusions of EA, and that you will accept pure sceptical critiques as a part of that, but that if, from investigating an issue, an author end up with a defense of an argument that fortifies EA, then that’s great too.
For what it’s worth I think I basically endorse that comment.
I definitely think an investigation that starts with a questioning attitude, and ends up less negative than the author’s initial priors, should count.
That said, some people probably do already just have useful, considered critiques in their heads that they just need to write out. It’d be good to hear them.
Also, presumably (convincing) negative conclusions for key claims are more informationally valuable than confirmatory ones, so it makes sense to explicitly encourage the kind of investigations that have the best chance of yielding those conclusions (because the claims they address look under-scrutinised).
makes sense! yeah as long as this is explicit in the final announcement it seems fine. I also think “what’s the best argument against X (and then separately do you buy it?)” could be a good format.
I had a very similar reaction. Here’s a comment I’d previously offered in response to this idea:
For what it’s worth I think I basically endorse that comment.
I definitely think an investigation that starts with a questioning attitude, and ends up less negative than the author’s initial priors, should count.
That said, some people probably do already just have useful, considered critiques in their heads that they just need to write out. It’d be good to hear them.
Also, presumably (convincing) negative conclusions for key claims are more informationally valuable than confirmatory ones, so it makes sense to explicitly encourage the kind of investigations that have the best chance of yielding those conclusions (because the claims they address look under-scrutinised).
makes sense! yeah as long as this is explicit in the final announcement it seems fine. I also think “what’s the best argument against X (and then separately do you buy it?)” could be a good format.