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There are some good ideas in here. But, the discussion of "primitive cultures" is so problematic that it undermines my ability to take him seriously.
by klunger 11y ago
There are some good ideas in here. But, the discussion of "primitive cultures" is so problematic that it undermines my ability to take him seriously.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago> But, the discussion of "primitive cultures" is so problematic that it undermines my ability to take him seriously. Consider then that maybe it's a flaw in your ability to #1 - "to distinguish “the things my brain tells me” from “reality”". Especially that there's little "discussion" of "primitive cultures" there, just a list of factual observations about them made by various people.
- Lewton 11y agoIt's impressive that you could get yourself to write that comment without irony about a blog post promoting rationality "I almost learned something about rationality from reading this! But I will irrationally dismiss this person because reasons"
- klunger 11y agoThe notion of "primitive" cultures, societies, religions etc. has not been taken seriously by anthropologists for decades. His whole argument hinges on theories of cultural relativism from the late 19th and early 20th century. So, yeah, I am going to dismiss arguments that are based on analogies to discredited ideas.
- eli_gottlieb 11y agoThe funny thing was that African tribesmen refusing to talk about things they've never seen before was actually some pretty clear thinking on the part of the Africans, confronting very confused thinking on the part of the anthropologists.
- vlehto 11y agoBut where does he end up with the "primitive cultures"? To me it looks like it was just imaginary concept used as a tool. Once you understand that development of cognitive abilities are related to environment and that they are not necessarily "levels", you can forget the whole idea of "primitive cultures". This is prime example why one should sometimes "entertain a thought without accepting it".
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- Lewton 11y agoYou basically said that you're dismissing this guy wholesale because of one small part of the article that is not that important to its overall point. How is that not a low-brow, low-content "reddit"-like comment?
- theorique 11y agoWhat is the problem with saying that cultures with differing levels of technological and social complexity present different sets of cognitive challenges to their members? If the word "primitive" bothers you, substitute "lower levels of technological complexity" to get the same endpoint.