Why should we believe something is true? It’s disturbing that normally intelligent people believe the incredible versions of events and exaggerated statements about religion and society made by the leaders of their time. Elon Musk Known for his impulsive one-liner philosophiesand his theological and political reflections. The Wall Street Journal Columnist Tim Higgins (“Elon Musk’s Walk with Jesus(August 17, 2024) also seems to have a similar purpose.
Elon Musk has publicly presented his own interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, with a twist on the Old Testament.
Musk has increasingly used religion to discuss his worldview on topics ranging from parenting to free speech.
“We have a lack of empathy for the victims of criminals and an excess of empathy for criminals,” Musk said. “That’s why we need deep empathy for society as a whole, not shallow empathy for criminals.”
Why Musk’s views matter The “society-wide” unicorn?
On what basis should one believe something? Scientific proof must take precedence as a justification for belief. If a coherent theory predicts an outcome and empirical evidence supports it, then that theory should be believed until empirical evidence to the contrary disproves it.
In the social sciences, i.e. economics and economic methodology, the law of demand is an example: there is no logically consistent theory that will make people buy more of something. just Just because the price goes up doesn’t mean economic theory proves the opposite, like the Euclidean theorem. (When luxury goods are purchased as status symbols, it is the status that is purchased, and the quantity demanded of status symbols decreases as the price goes up. This explains why not everyone buys luxury goods.) Louis Vuitton baseball caps cost 500 euros each) Routine observations and econometric evidence suggest that Other conditions are the same, When the price rises, the quantity demanded falls, Mutatis mutandisWith free will, it would be reasonable for some eccentric person to occasionally buy an extra piece of bubble gum simply because the price of bubble gum had gone up, but this would not measurably shift the market demand curve.
A related implication from economic theory is that the explanation must be compatible with the incentives of individuals to maximize utility, that is, to assess the situation according to their own preferences and to try to improve it. For example, Sandy Hook The genocide was orchestrated by the Deep State because such an operation is not incentive compatible with any individual government agency in an open society with the rule of law. (Elon Musk do not have Believe that particular conspiracy theory.
I mentioned logical consistency, which is a fundamental condition for believing something is true. Ancient Greek philosophers made that discovery: if a belief implies both A and not-A, then the belief must be rejected.
There is so much throughout the vast universe that we don’t understand and can’t hope to understand. Gödel’s incompleteness theorem It’s just a symptom. Along with music and poetry, maybe we need to leave a little window open for subjective faith. Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2912French doctor Alexis Carrel was an atheist who converted to Catholicism after witnessing what could only be described as a miracle. Lourdes Pilgrimage Center(It didn’t help his career in France, and by 1912 he was living in America.) We should still maintain a reasonable skepticism. In his writings, Impossibility Principle (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014) Statistician David Hand has shown that miracles and “miraculous” coincidences can often (and Hand would say always) be explained by probability theory.
In the area of social behavior, FA HayekAt the same time, we must leave room for the meta-rationality of following social rules, which has proven useful as an adaptation to our ignorance.
Only gullible people can become leaders and Philosopher King People who demonstrate no systematic knowledge or understanding of how society (including politics and economics) works, pretend to know the “common good”, and dictate how others should live. Gullibility seems to be the driving force.
These reflections may be related to three recent thinkers who have greatly advanced our knowledge of social issues and exposed the bravado of would-be philosopher kings. Anthony de Jasay claimed The social convention of “respecting other people’s ways of life” “demands much less moral veracity” than other political principles, so long as they do not harm others.
In their masterpiece, Consent calculationJames Buchanan and Gordon Tulloch make some interesting statements.
Christian idealism, to be effective in ushering in a more harmonious social order, must be tempered by an acceptance of the moral imperative of individualism, the principle of equal freedom. Acceptance of the right of individuals to do as they wish so long as their actions do not infringe on the freedom of other individuals must be the hallmark of any “good” society. The commandment “Love your neighbor, but if he wants to be left alone, leave him alone” may in some sense be said to be the most important ethical principle of Western liberal society.
in Why I’m Not a Conservative (Edward Elgar, 2006)Far from being an elitist, James Buchanan was a strong advocate of structured knowledge. Book Review RegulationI paraphrase what he saw as one of the requirements of a free society:
Individuals must understand “the simple principles of social exchange,” which entails “a general understanding of basic economics.” Otherwise, Buchanan argues, they must demonstrate a “wide-reaching willingness” to follow others who do understand.
As far as I can see, Musk is far from being socially or philosophically literate. He has entrepreneurial instincts and talents (Israel Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship (University of Chicago Press, 1973) does not give him any special intellectual authority to speak on questions of theology and politics, to say nothing of the fact that he also (or perhaps primarily?) appears to be a competent political scientist. Person seeking interestsThe most dangerous gurus are the political ones. By “political” I mean those that try to force others to live a certain way or to pay for the privileges of others. Of course, there’s no reason to believe it just because Musk says so.
