Josh
How Surprised Would You Be?
(Follow-up to How Surprised and How Upset?) (Cross-posted here.) It can be useful to try to gauge how surprised you would be by some...
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Josh
Nov 7, 20216 min
Being Moral in a Broken World
Despite what the numerous Kant jokes would lead you to believe, deontology is persuasive. It was my favorite normative philosophy when I...
Josh
Oct 31, 20213 min
The Dragon and the Fear
Once upon a time, the prosperous kingdom of Kingdomia sprawled out over a vast countryside. The people were happy. Their Queen was...
Josh
Oct 19, 20212 min
A Quote by Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger, one of the fathers of modern physics as we know it, was an eminently brilliant man and a clever scientist. The...
Josh
Aug 18, 20218 min
Worse Than Random
We all want to know what’s right, and to remove from our minds whatever is wrong. You might think that “wrong” is the worst thing to be,...
Josh
Jun 13, 20217 min
Sympathy for the Devil
(Content warning: the worst things in the world, including murder, rape, genocide, and people who do these things on purpose with smiles...
Josh
May 17, 20217 min
Murder-Ghandi and Conspiracy-Bob
(Or, "Bad Idea Radiation") Scott Alexander tells the parable of Murder-Ghandi, who starts out as regular Pacifist-Ghandi, thinks war is...
Josh
Apr 21, 20211 min
Prisoner's Di(alogue)lemma
Every conversation is a Prisoner's Dilemma scenario. "Cooperate" is to treat your conversation partner as acting in good faith, seeking...
Josh
Mar 28, 20217 min
Meritocracy Can't Be Bad (Contra Yglesias)
Meritocracy is under fire. Michael Sandel wrote a whole book about why it's bad. Freddy DeBoer, Daniel Markovits, and Helen Andrews all...
Josh
Mar 21, 20213 min
How Surprised and How Upset
I’ve been playing a little game for the last few years, which I call “How Surprised and How Upset.” The game begins with me asking the...
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