How many critiques boil down to

Myrmidon

"X doesn't add "of course, I'm probably wrong about everything" to the end of all his/her sentences"

Bastion

Louie W is impervious, then.

Gelzo

^Nice.

Myrmidon

Incidentally, if you were wondering what provoked this thread, it was this http://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/a-virtual-black-box/

LouieW

Myrmidon,

Do many critiques really boil down to that though? I feel like even if people did make those pretty extensive qualifications they would get criticized for being wishy-washy or not making a point strong enough (i.e., the idea that once you make a certain number of qualifications you might as well not have spoken at all). 

That being said, I think that sometimes people do not realize how strong what they say might seem to others nor do they realize what implicit assumptions they are making (especially online). In those cases, maybe making qualified statements makes more sense.

As for what Myrmidon linked to, I found this paragraph pretty ridiculous.

So here’s the single, simple question I want to pose to Harman: given the abstract ambiguity of his subject matter, and given that he almost certainly suffers from (to crib the list I used for my Nietzsche paper): actor-observer bias (fundamental attribution error), ambiguity effect, anchoring effect, asymmetric insight illusion, attentional bias, availability heuristic, availability cascade, the bandwagon effect, Barnum effect, base-rate neglect, belief bias, black swan effect, clustering illusion, choice bias, confirmation bias, congruence bias, consensus fallacy, contrast effect, control bias, cryptonesia, deprivation bias, distinction bias, Dunnig-Kruger effect, egocentric bias, expectation bias, exception bias, exposure effect, false memory, focusing effect, framing effect, future discounting, gambler’s fallacy, hindsight bias, halo effect, impact bias, ingroup bias, just-world illusion, moral credential effect, moral luck bias, negativity bias, omission bias, outcome bias, outgroup homogeneity bias, planning fallacy, post-hoc rationalization, post-hoc ergo propter hoc, projection bias, observer-expectancy effect, optimism bias, ostrich effect, positive outcome bias, positivity effect, pareidolia, pessimism bias, primacy effect, recency effect, reaction bias, regression neglect, restraint bias, rosy retrospection effect, selective perception, self-serving bias, Semmelweis reflex, social comparison bias, stereotyping, suggestibility, sunk-cost bias, superiority illusion, status-quo bias, trait ascription bias, transparency illusion, unit bias, ultimate attribution error, wishful thinking, zero-risk bias, why should anyone think he’s doing anything other than waving yet another cognitive lottery ticket around?