RE: Why believe the truth? (was: Rightness and Utility of Patriotism)

From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 16:18:01 MDT

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    From: Robin Hanson [mailto:rhanson@gmu.edu]
    > Of course that raises the question of why believing in the
    > truth should have such an overwhelming importance, moral or
    > otherwise.

    From an evolutionary perspective I'd conjecture that creatures that
    are better able to model their environment will have both survival and
    reproductive advantages.

    This strikes me as the driving force of both "intelligence" and the
    "truth-seeking" urge, which I suspect are inextricably linked.

    The evolutionary pressure to find "truth" is likely increased by
    environments where other intelligent agents have the ability and
    motivation to deceive (e.g., human pre-history).

    However, from this evolutionary perspective there is no reason that
    either "intelligence" or "truth-seeking" should be an absolute
    priority over other traits or activities.

    Certainly it's easy enough to come up with hypothetical cases where
    either believing something untrue or communicating something you
    believe to be untrue is to one's advantage or is consistent with the
    moral sense of most humans.



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