“As I see it, my allies in this world aren’t so much the people who value what I value. Sure, I like them. But my real allies are the people who are willing to apply the same sort of methods to achieve their ends, whatever their ends may be.”
This to me seems absurd. Let us imagine two armies one from country A and the other from country B, both of which use air raids as their methodology. The army from country A wants to invade country B and vice versa. Do you view these armies as being allies because they use the same methodology?
To take an example of opposing armies, consider the European powers between say 1000 CE and 1950 CE. They were often at war with each other. Yet they were clearly allies in a sense that they were in agreement that the European way was best and that some European should clearly win in various conflicts and not others. This was clear during, for example, various wars between powers to preserve monarchy and Catholic rule. If I’m Austria I still want to fight the neighboring Catholic powers ruled by a king to gain land, but I’d rather be fighting them than Protestant republics!
As I see it, an object-level battle does not necessarily make someone my enemy and may in fact be my willing ally when we step back from object-level concerns. If phrased in terms of ideas, every time I’d prefer to make friends with folks who apply similar methods of rationality and epistemology even if we disagree on object-level conclusions because we share the same methods rather than make friends with people who happen to agree with me but don’t share my methods, because I can talk and reason with people who share my methods. If the object-level-agreeing, method-disagreeing “allies” turn on me, I have no recourse to shared methods.
Can you define methodology? If you are defining the term so broadly that monarchy, catholic rule, and republic are methodologies then you don’t have to bite the bullet on the “effective nazi” objection. You can simply say, “fascism is a methodology I oppose” however at this point it seems like the term is so broad that your objection to EA fails to have meaning.
I don’t think this example holds up to historical scrutiny, but it’s so broad Idk how to argue on that front so I’m simply going to agree to disagree.
If the object-level-agreeing, method-disagreeing “allies” turn on me, I have no recourse to shared methods.
You can work to understand other people’s philosophical assumptions and work within those parameters.
“As I see it, my allies in this world aren’t so much the people who value what I value. Sure, I like them. But my real allies are the people who are willing to apply the same sort of methods to achieve their ends, whatever their ends may be.”
This to me seems absurd. Let us imagine two armies one from country A and the other from country B, both of which use air raids as their methodology. The army from country A wants to invade country B and vice versa. Do you view these armies as being allies because they use the same methodology?
In an important sense, yes!
To take an example of opposing armies, consider the European powers between say 1000 CE and 1950 CE. They were often at war with each other. Yet they were clearly allies in a sense that they were in agreement that the European way was best and that some European should clearly win in various conflicts and not others. This was clear during, for example, various wars between powers to preserve monarchy and Catholic rule. If I’m Austria I still want to fight the neighboring Catholic powers ruled by a king to gain land, but I’d rather be fighting them than Protestant republics!
As I see it, an object-level battle does not necessarily make someone my enemy and may in fact be my willing ally when we step back from object-level concerns. If phrased in terms of ideas, every time I’d prefer to make friends with folks who apply similar methods of rationality and epistemology even if we disagree on object-level conclusions because we share the same methods rather than make friends with people who happen to agree with me but don’t share my methods, because I can talk and reason with people who share my methods. If the object-level-agreeing, method-disagreeing “allies” turn on me, I have no recourse to shared methods.
Can you define methodology? If you are defining the term so broadly that monarchy, catholic rule, and republic are methodologies then you don’t have to bite the bullet on the “effective nazi” objection. You can simply say, “fascism is a methodology I oppose” however at this point it seems like the term is so broad that your objection to EA fails to have meaning.
I don’t think this example holds up to historical scrutiny, but it’s so broad Idk how to argue on that front so I’m simply going to agree to disagree.
You can work to understand other people’s philosophical assumptions and work within those parameters.