The Propaganda of Doubt and Compromise

This text is about how to live your life. It's propaganda, because I want to change your mind. But more then that, I want to find the truth. So I hope you'll point out where I've gone wrong. Let's change my mind too. I'll re-write sections as we go, but will keep them posted for reference.

This isn't idle philosophy. As our collective knowledge increases, so does our capacity for harm. I hope we can find some common ground, and then find effective policies to protect that ground.

Reading even basic philosophy like Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction can quickly get complicated. For example, it says: "Like phenomenology, hermeneutics is primarily a method and not a metaphysical or ontological theory". I will try to get to the heart of things with simpler language.

Changing your mind may be too aspirational. It seems that humans change through experience and feeling more than through explanation. But for those who already lean this way, I hope I can give a convincing explanation for why things are as they are.

Throughout, I'll link to the sources that have formed my thoughts. But my profession is engineering, not philosophy or physics. When reading a section, if I'm wrong, or if you know of good related material, please advise me.

Reality

Before we can understand what should be, we must understand what is. In this section, I try to avoid values. I don't think we can meaningfully discuss right and wrong until we have the details on how things actually work. For me, this is the most important part, and I've certainly been surprised by it.

Morality

In order to be satisfied with your life, you need to have an idea of why you've done things, and those reasons have to not feel like mistakes. Once we've got a handle on looking backwards, we can decide how we should act, by imagining a future and looking back from it.

Take any two opposed groups in history, and it can be hard to imagine a common ground. But I think there is one. Sam Harris has a lot to say on this topic. I focus on just the parts that seem to imply helpful policies for reduction of harm.

Policy

If you've accepted some of my views on reality and morality, then you might want to consider how this should effect our public policy. For me, the point of understanding the world is to take action in it.

In short, we need a global federation that protects itself and protects the basic rights of all parties.

Analysis

Where do I get my ideas? Mostly I look at someone else's and disagree a little bit. It's by working through that in writing, by pinning down the agreements and disagreements, and seeing where different things conflict that I begin to feel comfortable that I'm finding some truth. I include the analysis here, not as a comment on other's ideas, but as the breadcrumbs for my ideas. Where my analysis is wrong, my ideas are probably wrong too.