Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/01/philosophical-razors-cutting-through-lifes-complexities.html
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This definitely needs crossposting to the cards against humanity thread.
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Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
1980: Attributed to Robert J. Hanlon of Scranton, Pennsylvania in Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong! by Arthur Bloch.
“You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.”
1941: Robert A. Heinlein, Logic of Empire
There is very little deliberate wickedness in the world. The stupidity of our selfishness gives much the same results indeed, but in the ethical laboratory it shows a different nature.
1896: H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance
misunderstandings and lethargy perhaps produce more wrong in the world than deceit and malice do. At least the latter two are certainly rarer.
1774 (translated from German): Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
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Hell’s Razor
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Worth noting that these are all shorthand approximations of formalizable statements of probability theory, statistics, and epistemology. They’re mostly useful for wielding against your own bad habits and instincts of thinking. If you find you want to use them in an argument with someone else, you’re most likely making a mistake. Unless you know the person you’re talking to well enough to predict how they’ll take it, you’re likely better off using these heuristics to frame how you respond to their more specific claims, rather than making the argument be about epistemology.
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Cole’s law: thinly sliced cabbage
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That mayo may not be correct
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