Comment by Matthew_Pianalto on Your Rationality is My Business · 2007-04-15T20:38:17.000Z · LW · GW

W.K. Clifford gave a short, sweet argument for your position in his "The Ethics of Belief":

1. Our beliefs inform how we act.
2. Our actions affect other people.
3. Therefore. our beliefs affect other people. (And to the extent that how you treat me IS something I have a right to make judgments about, it IS my business what you believe or prefer...)

Comment by Matthew_Pianalto on The Majority Is Always Wrong · 2007-04-03T03:54:19.000Z · LW · GW

Example: Cognitive therapy (vs. SSRIs like Prozac) - studies show that good cognitive therapy can bring about similar changes in brain patterns, and relapse is lower once treatment (or medication) is terminated. I don't know how expensive good therapy is (so the user-end costs might be the same), but Pfizer sure isn't making its buck on cognitive therapy. (You can google stats on SSRI use and comparative studies.)

Comment by Matthew_Pianalto on Archimedes's Chronophone · 2007-03-24T15:55:13.000Z · LW · GW

"Archimedes, don't listen to what Aristotle said about Empedocles!" (Empedocles proposed a rough version of natural selection, and Aristotle rejected Empedocles' view as absurd in his Physics.) I suppose that might be "too anachronistic," depending upon just how much authority was given to Aristotle's teleological view of the world. I don't know that saying this would be forcing our own preferred conclusions on him.