Philosophy has spent 2,500 years asking "What is true?" when the urgent question was always "What kind of constraint is this, and does someone profit from my belief that it's unchangeable?" Deferential Realism doesn't care whether your epistemology is justified—it asks whether your constraint claim serves extraction or description. The innovation here isn't the four-category … Continue reading The Tyranny of Necessity: How Deferential Realism Weaponizes Skepticism
Tag: epistemic hygiene
The AI Paradox: Why the People Who Need Challenge Least Are the Only Ones Seeking It
There's a fundamental mismatch between what AI can do and what most people want it to do. Most users treat AI as a confidence machine. They want answers delivered with certainty, tasks completed without friction, and validation that their existing thinking is sound. They optimize for feeling productive—for the satisfying sense that work is getting … Continue reading The AI Paradox: Why the People Who Need Challenge Least Are the Only Ones Seeking It
Epistemic Hygiene for the Terminally Secular: A Contemplative Practice Without the Metaphysics
Traditional contemplative practices come wrapped in cosmologies most secular moderns can't honestly adopt. You can't just extract "mindfulness" from Buddhism without noticing you've gutted the thing. The four noble truths aren't optional packaging—they're load-bearing structure. The Trappist monk's lectio divina assumes divine revelation. Zen koans presuppose non-dual awareness. Sufi dhikr requires belief in God. The … Continue reading Epistemic Hygiene for the Terminally Secular: A Contemplative Practice Without the Metaphysics
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