Disagreement

Aumann's agreement theorem can be informally interpreted as suggesting that if two people are honest seekers of truth, and both believe each other to be honest, then they should update on each other's opinions and quickly reach agreement. The very fact that a person believes something is Rational evidence that that something is true, and so this fact should be taken into account when forming your belief.

Outside of well-functioning prediction markets, Aumann agreement can probably only be approximated by careful deliberative discourse. Thus, fostering effective deliberation should be seen as a key goal of Less Wrong.

Blog posts

• Reasonable Disagreement by Nicholas Shackel
• Agreeing to Agree by Hal Finney
• You Are Never Entitled to Your Opinion by Robin Hanson
• Normative Bayesianism and Disagreement by Nicholas Shackel
• The Modesty Argument
• The Rhythm of Disagreement
• Principles of Disagreement
• Disagreement is Near/Far Bias by Robin Hanson
• Better Disagreement by lukeprog

See also

• Aumann's agreement theorem
• Modesty argument
• Disagreements on Less Wrong
• Arguments as soldiers

External Links

• The Seven Causes of Disagreement by Spencer Greenberg
• How to Disagree by Paul Graham

References

• Tyler Cowen and Robin Hanson (2004). Are Disagreements Honest?.  (PDF, Talk video)
• We Can't Disagree Forever by John Geanakoplos and Heraklis Polemarchakis
• Information, Trade, and Common Knowledge by Paul Milgrom and Nancy Stokey