When is it worth it to argue over definitions?

When is it worth it to argue over definitions?
April 10, 2025
It’s almost always a waste of time debating definitions with people (“semantic debates”). Just stop for a moment to define terms or switch to using the other person's definition so you don’t talk past each other. Definitions can be whatever we want them to be, and most of the time the important thing is just that our definitions match closely enough so that we can communicate effectively. Atte...
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When are tariffs beneficial?

When are tariffs beneficial?
April 7, 2025
What is the point of tariffs, in general? Lots of countries have them, to at least a small degree. It's rarer that countries use them to a large degree. Why? My understanding is that there are four main reasons tariffs get put in place: (1) Special interests that benefit from tariffs lobby for them at the expense of everyone else. This is obviously a bad reason to have tariffs. (2) Somet...
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Five types of people who spread misinformation

Five types of people who spread misinformation
March 22, 2025
People often assume that public figures who spread false information are just “liars.” Still, I think it’s more accurate and useful to realize there are at least five distinct and important types of misinformation spreaders: 1) Narcissistic deceivers: they don’t track or even consider whether what they are saying is true; they say what feels good to them. This relates to what philosophers call...
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Predictions of extinction are not like other predictions

Predictions of extinction are not like other predictions
February 13, 2025
Predictions of extinction are not like other predictions for at least two reasons: You can’t reason based on track record in the same way you can with normal predictions. The stakes are extremely high. Being wrong on normal predictions rarely matters as much. Why? Regarding point one, reasoning based on track record: Normally, a type of prediction being wrong again and again will...
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Why can’t society agree on who is a “man,” who is a “woman,” and who is neither? An empirical and philosophical investigation into the metaphysics of gender.

February 7, 2025
by Spencer Greenberg Gender is a central part of many people's identities, and yet a very basic and politically contentious question is still being debated: What IS gender? And what defines whether someone is a "man," a "woman," or neither? This question is especially topical and important now in light of the January 20, 2025, Executive Order from Donald Trump attempting to define w...
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Educators Helping To Improve Rational Thinking

Educators Helping To Improve Rational Thinking
January 24, 2025
I've recently been thinking that there are 4 main categories of educators who are trying to correct bad thinking or help improve rational thinking and that 3 out of 4 of them are essential for improving critical thinking across society (whereas one type is probably harmful): Child education: those who aim to teach children "critical thinking," - which often (but not always) means teaching the...
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The effects of AI on chess

January 5, 2025
It's interesting to observe the effects of AI on chess as a sport. You might expect that since AI defeated Gary Kasparov in 1997, and subsequently, AI became far better than any human player, interest in chess would diminish. But interestingly, there has been a surge in interest over the past 5 years, with more and more people playing and watching it (COVID and the Queen's Gambit get some of the ...
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Is magic “real”?

Is magic “real”?
December 13, 2024
Is magic "real"? No, of course not - but also, yes, absolutely. Some people think that magic exists out there in the world. Many others think that magic doesn't exist at all. I believe that a more accurate view than both is that magic "exists" but only in the specific way that "redness" exists. Before I get into why I believe this, first let me explain what I mean by "magic." I don't ...
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Trusting the science

November 20, 2024
Is it a bad idea to broadly tell people to just "trust the science"? I think so. The reason stems from my thinking that all of the following are important and true (and too often overlooked) regarding science: 1) A lot of science is real AND valuable to society. 2) A lot of "science" is actually fake - see, for instance, a decent percentage of papers in psychology 15 years ago. 3) "Sc...
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Why do people often disagree about what’s immoral?

November 16, 2024
One reason people often disagree about what's immoral is that they have different values. But there's another important reason that I think few are aware of: there are at least four different kinds of moral evaluations of behavior, and it's easy to conflate them. I argue that only one of these categories is actually sufficient grounds for judging an *action* as immoral, despite many people using ...
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