> The fundamental dilemma is this: how should this person examine the available evidence to maximize their chances of coming to the correct conclusion? Should they abstain from trying to discern the truth of the matter, and strike out any opinion they could have as unqualified?
> There are a few dimensions here which (from my view) make the dilemma nearly intractable unless you 1) abstain from an opinion
I think the majority of the time, you should abstain. I mean, you can certainly debate things, it's fun to do and improves your thinking. But you should be sure of very few "controversial" things. You should be very ready to change your mind about most things. There is value in just saying "I'm not sure" about most things.
How do I define controversial? Well yeah this becomes a circular problem very quickly. As others have said, practically speaking, you usually don't really need to use the latest social science research for practical purposes. Sometimes you do - but hopefully then you are an expert.
However, sometimes there are things you need to decide. E.g., what diet maximizes your health/fitness goals? A classic case where there is a huge lack of expert consensus, etc. In these situations, I usually try to defer to who sounds smartest in general to me, but keep a very open mind to the idea that I might be totally wrong.
> There are a few dimensions here which (from my view) make the dilemma nearly intractable unless you 1) abstain from an opinion
I think the majority of the time, you should abstain. I mean, you can certainly debate things, it's fun to do and improves your thinking. But you should be sure of very few "controversial" things. You should be very ready to change your mind about most things. There is value in just saying "I'm not sure" about most things.
How do I define controversial? Well yeah this becomes a circular problem very quickly. As others have said, practically speaking, you usually don't really need to use the latest social science research for practical purposes. Sometimes you do - but hopefully then you are an expert.
However, sometimes there are things you need to decide. E.g., what diet maximizes your health/fitness goals? A classic case where there is a huge lack of expert consensus, etc. In these situations, I usually try to defer to who sounds smartest in general to me, but keep a very open mind to the idea that I might be totally wrong.