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Fallibilism

everyone has some mistaken ideas. and some good ideas.

they don't know which are which. some ideas they think are good are actually mistaken. some ideas they think are mistaken are actually good.

so then we can look at lots of a person's ideas and evaluations and ask: what if this one is mistaken? how might they find out? how might they fix it? if they're mistaken and they never find out, that means they won't fix it. is that a big deal?

often it is a big deal, and there's no serious, realistic efforts going into finding out what one is mistaken about.

Elliot Temple on December 7, 2015

Messages (17)

why do posts like this get little to no attention?


Anonymous at 6:21 PM on January 6, 2016 | #4543 | reply | quote

is no one reading? i don't think that's it.

do people have nothing to ask? nothing to add?


Anonymous at 6:22 PM on January 6, 2016 | #4544 | reply | quote

i don't know.

one idea is that it's pretty abstract and they don't know what it means. and they could ask for an example, but they are too passive.

but lots of more concrete posts get ignored too.


Elliot at 6:27 PM on January 6, 2016 | #4545 | reply | quote

Do you have an example?

And how do you spot "good" ideas that suck?


Anonymous at 2:00 AM on January 7, 2016 | #4546 | reply | quote

an example of what?

> And how do you spot "good" ideas that suck?

criticism.


Anonymous at 5:39 AM on January 7, 2016 | #4547 | reply | quote

>> Do you have an example?

>

> an example of what?

An example of this would be useful:

"some ideas they think are good are actually mistaken. some ideas they think are mistaken are actually good."


Anonymous at 4:52 PM on January 7, 2016 | #4548 | reply | quote

> An example of this would be useful:

>

> "some ideas they think are good are actually mistaken. some ideas they think are mistaken are actually good."

Joe thinks creationism is a good idea, but actually he's mistaken. Joe thinks evolution is mistaken, but actually it's a good idea.


Anonymous at 4:53 PM on January 7, 2016 | #4549 | reply | quote

[Waiting for him to post "I was mistaken. That example wasn't useful. My bad." And to learn something from his mistake. And to followup on any of the ideas productively.]


Anonymous at 9:28 PM on January 8, 2016 | #4551 | reply | quote

> [Waiting for him to post "I was mistaken. That example wasn't useful. My bad." And to learn something from his mistake. And to followup on any of the ideas productively.]

Why do you think the example is not useful? You didn't explain.


Anonymous at 5:28 AM on January 9, 2016 | #4554 | reply | quote

What's useful about it?


Anonymous at 10:01 AM on January 9, 2016 | #4555 | reply | quote

So you declared it's not useful BEFORE asking why it's useful.


Anonymous at 3:08 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4556 | reply | quote

It's useful in so far that it is an example of what anon asked for.


Anonymous at 3:10 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4557 | reply | quote

That doesn't say how it's useful to anon (or generally).


Anonymous at 3:13 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4558 | reply | quote

> [Waiting for him to post "I was mistaken. That example wasn't useful. My bad." And to learn something from his mistake. And to followup on any of the ideas productively.]

why were you waiting for this?

if elliot's idea is actually wrong, do you think he's going to automagically know that without a flaw being pointed out in it?


Anonymous at 3:15 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4559 | reply | quote

it's not waiting, it's more like making an explicit suggestion.

> if elliot's idea is actually wrong, do you think he's going to automagically know that without a flaw being pointed out in it?

which idea is "elliot's idea"? who is "he"? no idea what you're talking about.


Anonymous at 3:18 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4560 | reply | quote

> That doesn't say how it's useful to anon (or generally).

Anon asked for an example of "some ideas they think are good are actually mistaken. some ideas they think are mistaken are actually good."

and elliot gave an example of it, as asked.

do you think it's not an example of that?

or is there some other problem you have with it?


Anonymous at 3:18 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4561 | reply | quote

> and elliot gave an example of it, as asked.

no he didn't, an anon did.

you don't seem to have any concept of how that example would be useful to the anon who asked for it.


Anonymous at 3:20 PM on January 9, 2016 | #4562 | reply | quote

Want to discuss this? Join my forum.

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