Understanding new terms via etymology

post by corruptedCatapillar · 2023-04-26T20:48:44.338Z · LW · GW · 1 comments

This is a link post for https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/giqSwetz7Z6bgbrfE/understanding-new-terms-via-etymology

Contents

  Intro
  The Roots
  What about Credal Resilience?
  Conclusion
None
1 comment

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• This is a quick snapshot showing how I come to understand unfamiliar, key terminology.
• If you're lucky enough to encounter confusion, then the process goes; Encounter an unfamiliar term, look at etymology of said term, encounter info that doesn't make sense, try to explore why it could be true, come to an understanding, experience richness.

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Intro

I was reading the article "Terminate deliberation based on resilience, not certainty [EA · GW]" to learn how to know when it is you have enough info (or not) to make a good decision. And when reading, I encountered and couldn't get past the phrase "credal resilience".

So, as a habit instilled in my process of learning, I look up the etymology and found a couple of odd seeming items.

I should also mention, the forum's page on credal resilience [? · GW] has a page on credence [? · GW] which I could've gotten a good sense of (~ "the degree to which you believe in something being true or likelihood of happening"), but with the etymology route, I feel I know what a word means, past and present.

The Roots

*kerd- "Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'heart'."

Wow, didn't expect that. Cool though, I recognize "tachycardia", cardio, that makes sense. "Record" is interesting, "memorizing by heart" comes to mind, neat. "Courage", wouldn't have guessed but makes sense. *kerd-, means 'heart', got it.

"credence; credible; credit; credo; credulous; creed" Hmm, a lot of heart here, interesting.

Going from PIE languages, I go to Latin...

Credo: "Latin: I believe"

This especially builds off of "courage" in my mind, I can buy it. The next suggested definition...

Credenza: "an Italian sideboard" or "a cupboard or cabinet for the display of plate, etc."

Yeah, totally. Perfect. When I compare "an Italian sideboard" with my ability to say whether or not I believe an event will come to pass it definitely checks out. I'm in a much better position to know when to make a decision given x amount of new information.

But actually, it makes total sense.

This sense evolves from the "act or process of testing the nature or character of food before serving it as a precaution against poison" which moved to mean "a side-table or side-board on which the food was placed to be tasted before serving".

"How likely is it that this food will kill me?" That's a question I'd like to have a sufficient amount of information about.

What about Credal Resilience?

With this thought in mind, let's say that you have a person that's testing your food. I personally would want to watch them take those bites, and I also would feel more and more comfortable watching them test more and more of the food. If they don't die, then you probably won't die.

If you continued to take this thinking, "more testing will make me feel more and more confident", you'll come to believe with more and more certainty that your food isn't poisoned.

But! It very obviously wouldn't make sense to ask them to eat the whole plate "to be certain", and this is what Gregory Lewis is suggesting to strike a balance between.

You have to make a call on how much of this plate of food you're ok giving up before you risk missing out on the benefits of going through with the decision, or not. ("Terminate deliberation based on resilience, not certainty")

You have to decide what the line is between, "Is giving up this resource worth the information I'll gain about whether it's a safe bet or not?"

Conclusion

In asking why other etymology fans why it is they enjoy it, one person said, "...because I want to actually know what a word means". Through examples like this, I feel I come to know the words that I speak.

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