Category: Commentary, Critique, and Response

Psychologizing makes use of pseudoscience to deceive, rally and shame. Blocking pseudoscientists is just … scientific. ( Although, given that the majority of BS degrees are in such pseudosciences, that’s a lot of blocking.) @Imperius__13 Psychologizing broadly means mapping out the psychological motives of an individual’s actions and worldview. We all do it as we socially interact in the world, to friend and foe, and I’m not sure how you can’t say what Taleb mostly engages in is shaming and insultive suggestion. it’s still pseudoscience for the purpose of deception. Instead, map out incentives to seek to understand others, rather than imposing your incentives in order to shame others. All humans seek to acquire the full spectrum of material, relational, social, and intellectual capital. @Imperius__13 Replying to @curtdoolittle @nntaleb Mapping out the incentives of an actor is still what it colloquially means to psychologize them; you’re attempting to get inside their head either way. And of this talk of imposing our own incentive structure, as if a Darwinian like you could imagine another possibility. No. There is NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE. Psychology is nothing but a pseudoscientific fiction. That’s why they have reformed since 2000 so heavily. They’ve had to. Incentives are always explicable by rational choice to acquire. Period. Everything else is lying. The only reason to use the pseudoscience like psychology is to justify deceit, fraud, and theft. (NOTICE THE USE OF “Darwinian like you” as a means of psychologism, rather than the question of whether a statement is TRUE or not.)