tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post4329525600355690959..comments2024-03-28T19:14:33.619-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: Do Ethicists Behave Better Than the Rest of Us? Peer OpinionEric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-23747323194002058532007-01-17T06:31:00.000-08:002007-01-17T06:31:00.000-08:00That's a good thought, c&d -- and I should have th...That's a good thought, c&d -- and I should have thought of something like that beforehand! My current thinking is to do a second take on the questionnaire with exactly parallel questions about the moral behavior of specialists in metaphysics & epistemology. Then I can see if there's the same individual-is-better-than-the-group effect with them, which will allow me to go back and interpret the present results.<br /><br />I'd be interested to hear if you think that would be sufficient. One problem with changing the question (rather than adding a parallel question) is that it makes comparison with the present results problematic.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-28376330933792183922007-01-16T19:42:00.000-08:002007-01-16T19:42:00.000-08:00You note that survey B is problematic because it c...You note that survey B is problematic because it compares an individual vs a group. <br /><br />Couldn't you control for this in the future by comparing, say, the next person in the alphabet who is an ethicist with the non-ethicist before you in the alphabet? Or some such business.<br /><br />-c&dAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-32737677184925050582007-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:002007-01-16T09:00:00.000-08:00Interesting post on your blog, Lester. I'd encour...Interesting post on your blog, Lester. I'd encourage anyone who has made it this far down the comments list to go check it out!<br /><br />Thanks for clarifying that, anonymous. I suppose I haven't noticed any lower rate of rationality, either, among philosophers -- though neither does it seem as much higher as one might have naively expected. (I remember being disappointed, in my first philosophy class as a sophomore, that my professor didn't seem very sage-like and wise!) What you say about the saliency effect seems quite likely to me.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-71682779096023444292007-01-16T07:39:00.000-08:002007-01-16T07:39:00.000-08:00Eric, I posted a little note about your questionna...Eric, I posted a little note about your questionnaire, with a link to your site, at:<br /><br />http://lesterhhunt.blogspot.com/2007/01/is-moral-philosophy-good-for-your.html<br /><br />Or if for some reason this long url doesn't work you can click on my mane, above.<br /><br />L.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-49020197593262914312007-01-16T06:44:00.000-08:002007-01-16T06:44:00.000-08:00I meant to contrast rational with irrational rathe...I meant to contrast rational with irrational rather than with unethical. Though I can see how it may seem natural to make the inference from irrational to unethical. As far as my own intuitions are concerned, these two are not necessarily tied together, though my intuitions on these matters are particularly untutored.<br /><br />I think the saliency effects interpretation here is partly correct. We expect those who think in the abstract about rationality, or who are rational about the abstract in practice, to have that carry over into other aspects of their lives- and it is particularly striking, to me at least, when this isn't the case.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-2569707199223108762007-01-15T15:10:00.000-08:002007-01-15T15:10:00.000-08:00Yes, Lester, that's another thought I've often hea...Yes, Lester, that's another thought I've often heard in conversation. My personal view is that ethicists aren't worse, though -- only that the immoral ones are particularly salient and memorable! However, I'm open to the empirical evidence either way. (And I hope to gather more over the next several months.)<br /><br />Anonymous, you may be right, but I also wonder if it's a saliency effect or representative of a particularly bad philosophy department. In my own experience, I've found philosophers not a bad lot. I get along well with my colleagues at UC Riverside and find them to be generally good people (even the ethicists!); and the same is true of my peers from graduate school at Berkeley. My impression is that UCR has an unusually harmonious department, though, so maybe I'd have a dimmer view if I were somewhere else.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-53215856710096600062007-01-15T14:58:00.000-08:002007-01-15T14:58:00.000-08:00I've often thought this but with respect to profes...I've often thought this but with respect to professional philosophy professors in general- one gets the sense that to many of them 'rationality' must be fairly mysterious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-50279664395228215122007-01-15T09:18:00.000-08:002007-01-15T09:18:00.000-08:00My own folk-theoretical malign view of moral philo...My own folk-theoretical malign view of moral philosophers is an application of a wider theory, which you have probably also heard expressed in conversation, that people tend to be attracted to a field of study because it studies qualities that they lack. (Obviously, this only applies to fields that study some human trait or other.) If I had moral virtue myself, if I lived with it every day, I wouldn't find it so fascinating. It's the alien, the strange, that interests us. <br /><br />I don't know whether this means that I am prejudiced in favor of my folk theoretical view, or whether the more general theory could actually count as evidence for it.Lester Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-85932841857021119572007-01-15T07:14:00.000-08:002007-01-15T07:14:00.000-08:00I've heard many such opinions in conversation. Th...I've heard many such opinions in conversation. Thus, the results of Version A were something of a surprise to me. I thought people would say ethicists were worse!<br /><br />Some possibilities:<br /><br />* Philosophers do, on average, tend to think that ethicists are (again, on average) morally worse, but they're reluctant to say that on a public instrument like a questionnaire.<br /><br />* People in conversation with me are responding to something in the conversational situation -- like a perceived preconception on my part -- that evokes a more cynical answer about ethics than they'd give in a more neutral context.<br /><br />* Seeming cynical seems smarter or makes for more clever conversation, skewing the results of my informal conversations, but not affecting the questionnaire results.<br /><br />* Philosophers with less cynical than average views about ethicists are disproportionately likely to fill out a questionnaire by the book display at an APA. For example, maybe more sanguine philosophers are more likely to attend APAs, or go to the book display, or -- and this seems plausible to me -- happily walk up to a stranger to fill out a questionnaire for a piece of candy. Josh Rust said that he heard passersby make comments that seemed to reveal an assumption that our questionnaire was some corporate sales pitch; those same people, who don't generally stop for the questionnaire, make also be more cynical about ethicists.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-77214118514184276132007-01-14T19:35:00.000-08:002007-01-14T19:35:00.000-08:00As a moral philosopher myself, I've been intereste...As a moral philosopher myself, I've been interested in this issue for many years. I only just now found out about your research project. <br /><br />An old friend of mine, call him X (he is not Chair of a very distinguished philosophy department), once told me he had an idea he called X's Law: "In any given philosophy department, the morally worst person is the moral philosopher." I've always thought this was at least close to the truth, but would be glad to be proved wrong!Lester Hunthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14746157071827337723noreply@blogger.com