[psychological-KFC] VA's paint tin Theory of Mind

[FlashDangerpants]

In the field of psychology rather than philosophy, Theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them. It is beyond clear that VA has no idea how to do that.

Consider the old paint tin in your dad's garage. You can tell by the solidified lump of colour on the outside that it once held a viscous magnolia coloured susbtance that was perhaps fashionable in the 70s. But when you open it now, it contains a single key that seems not to open anything within at least 50 metres, a small amount of string that might once have tied a tomato plant to a stick, and 7 bolts which seem to come from at least 3 different machines and you cannot tell if they were surplus or just fell out as a surprise. The truly asmazing thing about this tin though, is that if you open it again next week, the mysteries will only deepen because random junk move in and out of the spooky tin all the time.

That spooky tin is a fairly accurate analogue of how VA views the contents of your thoughts. He cannot envision any set of coherent or even vaguely related beliefs that might make sense for you to hold. This is why he writes clearly batshit insane stuff like...

This is why I believe you are a morally unconcerned person in your psyche

That came about because he misread (20 times) an essay by Boyd as saying that philosophers of the competing camp are cognitively impaired. Obviously you (unless you are VA, or one or two others I suppose) can tell that no professional philosopher would write something so scandalously career ending as that. But that is only obvious to the rest of us. For VA, it makes perfect sense that the random philosopher would write the inane argument that he wants to read even if it does render said philosopher fundamentally the least competent of all time. The contents of Boyd's head may as well be a couple of lost marbles and a forgotten matchbook as much as a considerable body of philosophical work.

VA's lack of ToM also best explains why he thinks so many things are obviously true that we all can see are madness. It genuinely doesn't make any sense to put the whole of the Quran into a spreadsheet to "analyse" it into 1400 sub-Themes. Yet if you question him on that he will very likely ask you to publish it for him...

If you are really serious, I can give my detailed analysis to you and you publish it in a site with your real name it it?
I am looking for someone to do that.

Because to VA it makes perfect sense for you to bitterly criticise his crazy obsession driven nonsensical bullshit in one breath, and then just be onside with it for the next. He does not view us as holding any form of continuous mind. As far as VA is concerned, right now the innards of your squishy brain are probably the instruction leaflet for assembling a kite that was made in 1987 and flew over the horizon in 1989, plus a cough candy so old it might technically be a stone now.


That's enough to start with. The basic problem I describe here is in my view the underlying explanation for why conversation with VA in particular never makes any sense beyond the third post. I believe it explains why he thinks his KFCs that describe other KFCs are obviously true, and how he thinks that all reasonable people must agree with him even though he's never met anyone who agrees with any of that stuff and never will.

[FlashDangerpants]

See also VA's complete opbsession with lists. He thinks this suggestion...

I only define what is evil and its related evil acts.
Thus I will have to come up with a complete list of what is defined as evil with its varying degree of evil_ness.

Is completely sane. He has no idea that none of you is mad enough to think that a comprehensive list is plausible, or that it solves any issues, or that he can usefully define a measurement of "evil_ness". He's been talking about that list for years, never started it for some reason.

But you are not granted any permission to hold doubts about it. VA doesn't have doubts, so he doesn't imagine you do either. As a matter of course tend to assume that whatever he believes is something you must believe. There is for this reason no way to explain to him that you find his made up numbers nonsensical. Assuming you do think they are junk.

[FlashDangerpants]

Another way in which VA's limited ability to imagine the inner lives of other people strikes is tendency to explain minor things with extravagant theories about the contents of your head. Consider the things he is willing to explain by reference to an "existential crisis"...

These are all just straight quotes of him using that one phrase:

• Kant is also a "psychologist" in understanding it is inherent in human nature driven by an evolutionary default and existential crisis to turn to metaphysics for its therapeutic purposes.

• The most your belief of a mind-independent noumenal is to soothe the cognitive dissonance from an existential crisis which is insufficient to promote greater goods to humanity in the future.

• ... no qualms dropping the term objectivity is necessary, but to PH and FDP, dropping the term 'objectivity' will trigger fears and terror from an existential crisis within them.

• All humans are programmed with an innate unavoidable existential crisis that generate terrible primal cognitive dissonance. ii. The critical task for all humans is to soothe the cognitive dissonances. ...

• ... from cause which is due to a psychological state of constant conjunction. This tsunamic psychological force within theism is due to an inherent existential crisis that exudes subliminal terror within.

Ok, actually there are 49 pages of results for him writing "existential crisis" to explain why other people who look around themselves and see a real world might suppose that it is in fact real. I CBA listing more than that because I don't actually share his compulsion to sort lists. So that's your lot.

[jesse99]

Fascinating analysis. The paint tin analogy perfectly captures how VA might perceive others' thoughts,wordle unlimited a jumbled mess with no clear connections.

[FlashDangerpants]

Another strange thing gets assigned to "existential crisis", this time it explains me being a bit mean

Those who attack me without an intellectually basis [e.g. FDP] is due their psychological desperations to soothe their existential crisis.

[FlashDangerpants]

That VA is capable of believing heis justified to write these words:

You are a self-declare moral skeptic which mean you do not acknowledge there are moral elements within humanity and yourself.

Is proof, if there were any remaining doubts, that this thread is actually directed at a real problem. Like, IRL, VA needs to talk with somebody about this sort of thing.