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I remember hearing the same things in biology class many years ago, and thinking to myself “but we don’t know what we don’t know, this guy is overly certain abo
by epicureanideal 5y ago
I remember hearing the same things in biology class many years ago, and thinking to myself “but we don’t know what we don’t know, this guy is overly certain about this”. The over-certainty about the present state of knowledge is unfortunate and might slow progress.
- glenstein 5y agoRight, and one term one I've heard for this is Overconfident Pessimism [0]. People confidently declare that cancer is "incurable" as a matter of metaphysical principle, the reason being that cancer isn't one thing and that it's really hard. The most celebrated example making this declaration that I know of is this comic from PhD comics [1]. I think you can appreciate that cancer is more than one thing, and that "curing" in all it's variations is really hard, without proceeding, punch drunk on enlightened skepticism, to declare that these mean it can't be cured. To me it feels like a frustrating philosophy 101 mistake masquerading as profound wisdom. 0. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gvdYK8sEFqHqHLRqN/overconfident-pessimism https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/gvdYK8sEFqHqHLRqN/overconfid... 1. https://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1162 https://phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1162