Sublime

parameters: the quality and accuracy of the feedback we receive determines how quickly we learn.2

This relatively benign (and purely fictional) example shows two things: first, it illustrates how stealthily descriptive regularities can become normative. Second, it illustrates that this normativity can go undetected until it’s breached, at which point the question of accountability forces us to make a decision about our commitment or lack thereo

The urge for retribution depends upon our not seeing the underlying causes of human behavior.

The sociologist Robert Merton found that when two scientists collaborated, whoever was better known got the lion’s share of the credit. And if two scientists came up with an idea separately at about the same time, the one who was better known received far more recognition for it. Merton called it the Matthew effect.

Even scientists who are most concerned with assessing individual differences in personality would concede that our ability to predict how particular people will respond in particular situations is very limited. This “predictability ceiling” is typically reflected in a maximum statistical correlation of .30 between measured individual differences on

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.

observer effect, by which individuals under study modify their behavior because of their awareness of the study.

One of the defects of all philosophers since Plato is that their inquiries into ethics proceed on the assumption that they already know the conclusions to be reached.