Originally Posted by
DarkestDarkness
Maybe I chose my wording poorly. When I said "take at face value" I didn't mean to imply acceptance (I think I may be misreading some of what you said, not sure), which is why I said "in some sense" too. In any case, I only meant that I might have dismissed the rest of the content of the book prematurely if it were being worded as some kind of ultimate truth and therefore I might not have had further motivation to finish it; that said, I would be willing to read something I might completely disagree with from the start, if nothing else, to understand why another person thinks the way they do.
And I think to say that we are collectively naive may not be entirely fair to ourselves as unique individuals; as individuals we can be naive in some regards and less in others and that changes over time anyway, I would believe so from my own experience, at least.
Yes, I do know the kind of posts both of you are mentioning. I also think that normally there's not much that can be said of productive value and whether those people would be willing to accept a reasoned discussion on the subject or not can be unpredictable. Some may be unstable, sure, but linking back to what I was saying about naivety, it may just be that they are naive on a particular subject. In my personal view, to make assumptions can be a bit like dropping a blanket with a label of "stupid" on top of someone; I have had stupid attitudes or views in life, but I am still the same person and I got over those views. Because I had stupid views, it doesn't mean I have to consider my past self stupid as a whole, does it? :P
This isn't a jab at your comment by the way, I know you weren't calling anyone anything and sometimes people are actually in need of help too. It just got me thinking was all, after that bit above about naivety.
I think we probably agree on this but we probably just use different words to a similar effect. Could you just clarify how you are defining "self-aware thought experiment"?