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Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease — LessWrong

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Related to: Disguised Queries, Words as Hidden Inferences, Dissolving the Question, Eight Short Studies on Excuses -- George Will, townhall.com Sandy is a morbidly obese woman looking for advice. Her husband has no sympathy for her, and tells her she obviously needs to stop eating like a pig, and would it kill her to go to the gym once in a while? Her doctor tells her that obesity is primarily genetic, and recommends the diet pill orlistat and a consultation with a surgeon about gastric bypass. Her sister tells her that obesity is a perfectly valid lifestyle choice, and that fat-ism, equivalent to racism, is society's way of keeping her down. When she tells each of her friends about the opinions of the others, things really start to heat up. Her husband accuses her doctor and sister of absolving her of personal responsibility with feel-good platitudes that in the end will only prevent her from getting the willpower she needs to start a real diet. Her doctor accuses her husband of ignor

x Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease — LessWrong Connecting Words to Reality Health / Medicine / Disease Motivational Intro Posts Philosophy of Language Reversal Test Carving / Clustering Reality Dissolving the Question Rationality Frontpage 573 Diseased thinking: dissolving questions about disease by Scott Alexander 30th May 2010 11 min read 357 573 Related to: Disguised Queries , Words as Hidden Inferences , Dissolving the Question , Eight Short Studies on Excuses Today's therapeutic ethos, which celebrates curing and disparages judging, expresses the liberal disposition t

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