Posted: Jul 21, 2020 4:32 pm
Mithcoriel wrote:So I heard there is the beautiful fantasy world in which everyone is perfectly rational: never gets aggressive or biased in debates, lays out their reasoning in perfect logic, takes time to read and understand the opponent's logic, thanks people who prove them wrong cause they like to learn, always welcomes devil's advocates or people of opposing viewpoints as a chance to broaden their horizon, and ultimately everyone comes to the same objectively logic conclusion.
How much of the above is reality? I mean even outside fundamentalist religious circles or other cult-like groups where they prefer echo-chambers. Does this reflect the majority of regular people? Does it even reflect the majority of people in skeptic communities like this one? Should people be expected to tolerate rational counter-arguments to their worldview?
Cause I'm a total devil's advocate. If you want to know which side of an issue I'm on: it's the one I'm criticizing the most. If there's one side I won't tolerate mistakes on, it's my own. But when does the devil's advocate go too far?
Look at the attached picture. Its maker seems to have a different opinion on devil's advocates.
"I'm just asking questions" : is this a good thing or a dick move?
"So what you're basically saying" : obviously misrepresenting what your opponent says is wrong, no argument there. Same with rejecting evidence.
There is a fair amount of straw manning here and poisoning the well. Reality is that humans have emotions that are part of our cognitive architecture. This is helpful where, as one example puts it, if there is a rustle in the bushes it motivates us to flee regardless of the fact that said rustling is caused by a tiger or a squirrel. Layered on top of this is a cognitive pattern seeking part of our brain that looks for cause, and can often be derailed by biases that we bring to the exercise. All that skepticism does at its foundation is ask the question “Do I have a good reason to believe that what is causing the rustling is X?” There are many tools available to us to answer that question. One of the most effective, as has been demonstrated time and again, is science.