So, caring more about the virtue of being truthful than the utilitarian ambition to create impact?(Sorry, not really against your point, but when the culture demands not being truthful to succeed, you basically doom the truthful ones to fail. That’s, why I disagree that the burden should lie on the conscious of the applicant, but the system needs adaptation to ensure it reinforces truthfulness and epistemic humility.)
Hi Ruth. I only care about seeking truth to the extent it increases welfare (more happiness, and less pain). I just think applicants optimising for increasing their chances of being funded usually leads to worse decisions, and therefore lower welfare, than them optimising for improving the decisions of the funders. I also do not think there is much of a trade-off between being funded by and improving the decisions of impact-focussed funders, who often value honesty and transparency about the downsides of the project quite highly.
So, caring more about the virtue of being truthful than the utilitarian ambition to create impact?(Sorry, not really against your point, but when the culture demands not being truthful to succeed, you basically doom the truthful ones to fail. That’s, why I disagree that the burden should lie on the conscious of the applicant, but the system needs adaptation to ensure it reinforces truthfulness and epistemic humility.)
Hi Ruth. I only care about seeking truth to the extent it increases welfare (more happiness, and less pain). I just think applicants optimising for increasing their chances of being funded usually leads to worse decisions, and therefore lower welfare, than them optimising for improving the decisions of the funders. I also do not think there is much of a trade-off between being funded by and improving the decisions of impact-focussed funders, who often value honesty and transparency about the downsides of the project quite highly.