ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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You know, if determinism is true, Tyler wouldn't act any differently, anyway. That's kinda the point of determinism.
The rational response to a performative contradiction is not to embrace it but to eliminate it: either change your belief or change your practice. Tyler's refusal to do this represents an uncharacterstic lapse by an otherwise eminently rational man. He is saying, in effect: Sometimes I believe A. But because I also sometimes believe not-A, it is unfair to use my belief in A as evidence for A.
Not one of his stronger positions.
It seems like a linguistic trick. Its true that what he believes doesn't prove the truth, but how he acts does show what he believes.
The fact that he wouldn't act differently depending upon his beliefs for a few cases (such as, perhaps, determinism) is not relevant to the particular case in question.
In the particular case, he would act differently if he believed differently.
Curious that an economist of Tyler's stature would maintain that revealed preference is no big thing.
It seems perfectly reasonable to me to say that people often don't live up to their aspirations and beliefs.
I believe that I would be healthier if I lost weight, and yet I do not do that. Do I actually believe that I don't need to lose weight? No, I'm just not succeeding at it.
We are not computers, we are organic beings. When you guys depart from financial transactions into human behavior (like dating) and philosophy (a subject as rediculously unquantifiable as 'alikeness') you are simply not saying anything useful.