Re: Opinions as Evidence
Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Wed, 26 Mar 1997 16:22:55 -0800 (PST)
> Time limits suggest I better wrap up my conversation with Lee Crocker.
> ...
> Yes, if you are confident that most people in history were especially
> sloppy thinkers, and if you are one of the rare careful thinkers, then
> you shouldn't give other's opinions much weight. But this can be good
> advice for at most very few people.
>
> Regarding the claim that most people in history were wrong about most
> things, the question is what other cognitive strategy would have
> enabled them to be wrong less often. I claim that for the vast
> majority of them, ignoring the opinions of their comtemporaries would
> have just made things worse.
>
> Robin D. Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/
With these contentions I have little disagreement, including that now would
be a good time to wrap things up. Thank you for the exercise, and if you
have any particular books in mind that you think I may have missed, I am
happy to entertain recommendations (but please, please, not _The Fourth
Turning_! :-)
--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC