I also found this remarkably clear and definitive—a real update for me, to the point of coming with some actual relief! I’m afraid I wasn’t aware of the existing posts by Toby Crisford and Jessica Taylor.
I suppose if there’s a sociological fact here it’s that EAs and people who are nerdy in similar sorts of ways, myself absolutely included, can be quick to assume a position is true because it sounds reasonable and seemingly thoughtful other people who have thought about the question more have endorsed it. I don’t think this single-handedly demonstrates we’re too quick; not everyone can dig into everything, so at least to some extent it makes sense to specialize and defer despite the fact this is bound to happen now and then.
Of course argument-checking is also something one can specialize in, and one thing about the EA community which I think is uncommon and great is hiring people like Teru to dig into its cultural background assumptions like this...
I also found this remarkably clear and definitive—a real update for me, to the point of coming with some actual relief! I’m afraid I wasn’t aware of the existing posts by Toby Crisford and Jessica Taylor.
I suppose if there’s a sociological fact here it’s that EAs and people who are nerdy in similar sorts of ways, myself absolutely included, can be quick to assume a position is true because it sounds reasonable and seemingly thoughtful other people who have thought about the question more have endorsed it. I don’t think this single-handedly demonstrates we’re too quick; not everyone can dig into everything, so at least to some extent it makes sense to specialize and defer despite the fact this is bound to happen now and then.
Of course argument-checking is also something one can specialize in, and one thing about the EA community which I think is uncommon and great is hiring people like Teru to dig into its cultural background assumptions like this...