[extropy-chat] Robin Hanson on Cynicism

[Robin Hanson]

At 02:22 PM 9/21/2005, Hal Finney wrote:
>... http://hanson.gmu.edu/metacynic.html , "The Cynic's Conundrum." ...
>The conclusion I draw is perhaps a little different from Robin's,
>which is that cynicism itself is the one thing that cynics should not
>be publicly cynical about, otherwise they undercut their own criticism
>(which would then descend into nihilism).  And of course this does open
>up an effective riposte by members of society stung by cynical criticism:
>to challenge the cynic to take a look in the mirror and see if his own
>high-sounding criticisms are really as brave and idealistic as he claims.

I posed the issue in terms of what should the cynic believe about himself,
rather than how he should present himself to others.  But yes, the more
that the cynic's targets know of his conundrum, the harder for him.  Not
that the cynic's motives for criticizing should really matter than much for
whether the cynic's criticisms are accepted as true.  But alas for humans,
it does matter a great deal.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323