Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity — Robert J. Hanlon
No one knowingly does evil. — Socrates
Although ancient Roman law had declared people with intellectual disability to be incapable of the deliberate intent to harm that was necessary for a person to commit a crime, during the 1920s, Western society believed they were morally degenerate. — Wikipedia
Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is to the lack of legal guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. — Wikipedia
Epistemic responsibility, due to its moral flavor, would mean that Donald Trump is an evil/bad person. — TheMadFool
Isn't that obvious? — Olivier5
It has to do with the fact that they shout in public people who wear masks, have pride in not being vaccinated, risk others by not taking them into account (if you don't want to get vaccinated, fine, but keep to you and yours and leave other people alone), harass parents kids for wearing masks or being vaccinated, and on and on. — Manuel
But, as you imply, there are other reasons and other parts of the population who don't get vaccinated for other reasons. And not every reason given is silly or not rational. It has become an overtly political topic. — Manuel
One needs to be smart to be 'machaivellian'. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump is evil ,but he is also a cretin.
And he likes being a cretin, and he wallows in it. Hence I agree, in his and many other cases, that true, limitless stupidity is chosen, embraced. It is not a natural state of man to be that stupid. — Olivier5
It's not only that; it's the vested interest of the average person in their accustomed prosperity, convenience and lifestyle, which means they won't vote for any government that presents plans to ameliorate global warming, if those plans involve any lessening of personal prosperity and comfort (like extra taxes or rising costs, etc).. — Janus
But how can you have such good reasons for selecting or dismissing evidence, if you're not actually an expert in the field? — baker
Perhaps we aren't sure, as we should be, about good, evil, and idiocy. They seem to be entangled with each other in a conceptual cloud of confusion. — TheMadFool
I think we ARE sure. It's just more convenient to ignore evil, less disturbing — Olivier5
But doesn't the problem of induction show that we all believe things without proof? — frank
How could you possibly know that? You've checked all the beliefs in all the world? — Olivier5
Last time we had that opposing views need not be engaged with, this time it's that opposing views are actually morally required to switch allegiance. I'm opening a book on what's next if you're interested in a wager... — Isaac
Do we not have an epistemic responsibility in life? If our actions have ripple effects, and our actions are largely an outgrowth of our beliefs, then isn't it irresponsible to believe in things that lead to harmful actions? Shouldn't we be more careful about what we believe in? — Xtrix
I think that's self-evidently true to an extent, but then again people regularly make significant sacrifices for the sake of their children's comfort (going without to pay for education, for example), so it would be quite hard to reconcile that with a purely selfish greed outweighing a known risk to one's children's future. People are not inherently greedy and selfish to the point that they'd sacrifice their children's well-being for a flashier car. These behaviours are played upon by advertisers, corporartions and media influences to get the desired outcome. — Isaac
Believing in something without evidence is a choice, — Xtrix
It is neurologically impossible to believe something without evidence. — Isaac
Epistemic responsibility, due to its moral flavor, would mean that Donald Trump is an evil/bad person. — TheMadFool
Believing in something without evidence is a choice,
— Xtrix
It is neurologically impossible to believe something without evidence. — Isaac
but they don't themselves function without inputs (real time evidence). Beliefs are just too high level a structure to develop independant of inputs. — Isaac
No one deliberately decides to get it wrong. — Isaac
Yep. I'm offering 4:1 on 'genocide', 8:1 on 'Armageddon' and 10:1 on the zombie apocalypse outsider. — Isaac
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
I would say we have a responsibility to argue in good faith, to try and understand others rather than pretend ignorance or misunderstanding, and to remain open to the evidence presented to us by others. — Olivier5
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