Yeah, I strongly agree and endorse Michael’s post, but this line you’re drawing out is also where I struggle. Michael has made better progress on teasing out the boundaries of this line than I have, but I’m still unclear. Clearly there are cases where conventional wisdom is wrong—EA is predicated on these cases existing.
Michael is saying on questions of philosophy, we should not accept conventional wisdom, but on questions of sociology, we should. I agree with you that the distinction between sociological and philosophical are not quite clear. I think you’re example of “what should you do with your life” is a good example of where the boundaries blur.
Maybe, I think “sociological” is not quite the right framing, but something along the lines of “good governance.” The peer review point Michael brings up doesn’t fit into the dynamic. Even though I agree with him, I think “how much should I trust peer review” is an epistemic question, and epistemics does fall into the category where Michael thinks EAs might have an edge over conventional wisdom. That being said, even if I thought there was reason to distrust conventional wisdom on this point, I would still trust professional epistemic philosophers over the average EA here and I would find it hard to believe that professional epistemic philosophers think forums/blogs are more reliable than peer reviewed journals.
Yeah, I strongly agree and endorse Michael’s post, but this line you’re drawing out is also where I struggle. Michael has made better progress on teasing out the boundaries of this line than I have, but I’m still unclear. Clearly there are cases where conventional wisdom is wrong—EA is predicated on these cases existing.
Michael is saying on questions of philosophy, we should not accept conventional wisdom, but on questions of sociology, we should. I agree with you that the distinction between sociological and philosophical are not quite clear. I think you’re example of “what should you do with your life” is a good example of where the boundaries blur.
Maybe, I think “sociological” is not quite the right framing, but something along the lines of “good governance.” The peer review point Michael brings up doesn’t fit into the dynamic. Even though I agree with him, I think “how much should I trust peer review” is an epistemic question, and epistemics does fall into the category where Michael thinks EAs might have an edge over conventional wisdom. That being said, even if I thought there was reason to distrust conventional wisdom on this point, I would still trust professional epistemic philosophers over the average EA here and I would find it hard to believe that professional epistemic philosophers think forums/blogs are more reliable than peer reviewed journals.