Re: poly: Anarchy and Empiricism

Robin Hanson writes:
> Perry writes:
> >I'm very strongly *inclined* towards anarchy. I favor the system and
> >believe that there is good evidence for it, but I don't think the
> >evidence is by any means good enough -- I will fully admit that I'd
> >prefer to have better evidence for it. Given that the evidence for
> >anarchy is better than that for political control, I choose anarchy, ...
>
> This would be a fine place for you to contrast your high standards with
> the unscientific sloppy academic economics you complain of. Please
> point us to this evidence and a careful analysis of it you respect.

I go through the trouble of saying that I don't think the evidence for
my position is sufficient by my own standards, and would like to see
better evidence gathered, and I get asked for evidence up to the
standards I espouse. Now *there* is a worthless rhetorical device. I'm
sure that, like the ad hominems earlier, it made you feel better, but
what did it teach anyone?

Sigh.

Look, guys, I'm not going to bother you any longer. I'm obviously a
loon, and an uninteresting one at that. I'm unsubscribing from the
mailing list. I've gotten very little out of it thus far anyway, and I
have no interest in being in a discussion where I'm learning nothing
and my counterparties are not interested in saying anything
substantive in the first place. My life is full enough without it.

Besides, it will save people the trouble of killfiling me, and I
wouldn't want to trouble people.

Perry
Received on Thu May 7 18:26:01 1998