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I think it was Borges that said 'all the discussions are about semantics.': I could argue that the Second World War was about, you know, the world, not about G
by RobertoG 9y ago
I think it was Borges that said 'all the discussions are about semantics.':
I could argue that the Second World War was about, you know, the world, not about Germany. They were fighting in all Europe, that in that moment the fight was in Germany was due to the development of the war but it was, yet, a global war.
We need heuristics because when somebody tell us something that goes against a developed heuristic we should be surprised and examine the evidence more carefully. A kind of comprehension algorithm if you want. Maybe it's another way of saying that if you are invading a country the burden of proof is on you.
For instance, Russian intervention in Ukraine was about protecting ethnics Russians, USA intervention in Iraq was about spreading democracy or defensive intervention or something like that.
That goes against my heuristic, so I should stop to examine the evidence more carefully.
- likeclockwork 9y agoI don't think either of those are counterexamples to your heuristic. Your heuristic just highlighting your biases around those two conflicts.
- RobertoG 9y agoI can see now how adding a 'supposedly' in the 4th paragraph would make my point more clear. Sorry about that.
- golergka 9y ago> We need heuristics because when somebody tell us something that goes against a developed heuristic we should be surprised and examine the evidence more carefully. A kind of comprehension algorithm if you want. Maybe it's another way of saying that if you are invading a country the burden of proof is on you. That is an excellent point. However, I too often see people treat heuristics as a rigid rule instead; case in point: original comment. Treating heuristics as heuristics and digging deeper requires untypical intellectual honesty, especially when talking about politics - where most of the arguing is an emotionally charged aggression towards out-group rather than search for the truth. Therefore, while I perfectly understand usefulness of heuristics as a concept, I think that in this kind of topic it's useful to abstain from heuristics altogether.