But when you’re really done, you’ll know you’re done. Dissolving the question is an unmistakable feeling...
I’m not so sure. There have been a number of mysteries throughout history that were explained by science, and the resolution didn’t feel immediately satisfying to people even though they do to us now—like the explanation of light as being electromagnetic waves.
I frequently find it tricky to determine whether a feeling of dissatisfaction indicates that I haven’t gotten to the root of a problem, or whether it indicates that I just need time to become comfortable with the explanation. For instance, it feels to me like my moral intuitions are objectively correct rules about how people should and shouldn’t behave. Yet my reason tells me that they are simply emotional reactions built into my brain by some combination of biology and conditioning. I’ve gotten somewhat more used to that fact over time, but it certainly didn’t feel at first like it successfully explained why I feel that X is “wrong” or Y is “right.”
Eliezer, you wrote:
I’m not so sure. There have been a number of mysteries throughout history that were explained by science, and the resolution didn’t feel immediately satisfying to people even though they do to us now—like the explanation of light as being electromagnetic waves.
I frequently find it tricky to determine whether a feeling of dissatisfaction indicates that I haven’t gotten to the root of a problem, or whether it indicates that I just need time to become comfortable with the explanation. For instance, it feels to me like my moral intuitions are objectively correct rules about how people should and shouldn’t behave. Yet my reason tells me that they are simply emotional reactions built into my brain by some combination of biology and conditioning. I’ve gotten somewhat more used to that fact over time, but it certainly didn’t feel at first like it successfully explained why I feel that X is “wrong” or Y is “right.”