Aretae

The virtue of excellence

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Political Epistemology Question

Can you order the strength of these effects in political discourse?

  • Believe what "my" group believes
  • Believe as true what my truth-independent moral tastes say
  • Believe according to rational analysis
  • Believe in order to hurt the other team.
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6 comments:

perfidy said...

1. Believe as true what my truth-independent moral tastes say

2. Believe what "my" group believes

3. Believe in order to hurt the other team.

4. Believe according to rational analysis

In a world where you're no longer born into political groups, 1 leads to 2. Four almost never happens.

October 16, 2012 at 6:09 AM
rightsaidfred said...

Believe as true what my truth-independent moral tastes say...
Believe according to rational analysis

People think their moral tastes and rationality are the same thing.

When asked, most say their moral/rational thinking is the primary guide. Second is following the group. Third is destroying the other guy.

When observed, most follow the group, and destroy if the group is into it.

October 16, 2012 at 3:46 PM
HSA said...

This is what I believe I see other people doing a lot the last decade or two, but perhaps it has always been this way:

1. Believe in order to hurt the other team.

2. Believe as true what my truth-independent moral tastes say

3. Believe what "my" group believes

I suspect this is what I am inclined to do as well, which is why I have to read political analysis suuuuppppppeeeer slow.

October 16, 2012 at 4:26 PM
drpat said...

I think you have to add in "pretend to believe as my group believes for both tactical and strategic reasons"

eg. Tactical: Any sign of a crack in the wall will result in my group losing this argument.

Strategic: By disagreeing with my group, I weaken my status in the group.

October 16, 2012 at 6:43 PM
Aretae said...

Dr. Pat,

i suppose that's an option, but I spend a huge amount of time mapping how people think( Mostly that's because I'm too aspie to empathize my way into understanding them...so I brute-force the cognitive approach, and run a whole-brain emulation.). In spending all that time mapping folks thoughts...they mostly actually believe the things. If they didn't, their thoughts wouldn't cohere as well...there would be a lot more inconsistency in some places. And there isn't. Sure, there are some sociopaths who pretend to believe, but the easy hack is just ot believe it.

October 16, 2012 at 6:52 PM
drpat said...

Maybe I'm projecting my sociopathy?

Or maybe there is a very fuzzy line between pretending to believe something, and actually believing it. I guess pretending to believe something for long enough and and the brain decides to just go with it.

October 17, 2012 at 2:55 PM

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