Parenting
TCS is the true parenting theory. The primary ideas are:
- Fallibility (certain knowledge is impossible; people can be wrong)
- No Authorities (ideas must be judged on their merit, the source is irrelevant to truth content -- therefore children can be right and can't be dismissed)
- A state of coercion is one in which a person has two active theories that conflict, and is being forced to enact one prior to resolving the conflict.
- Coercion is bad for knowledge growth (I will write an entry giving the epistemic reasons for this in the future)
- Common Preferences, coercion-free solutions to problems, are always possible
- This means children don't do anything they don't want to
- What people want is subject to morality, and thus children won't want horrible things, as long as parents offer good moral theories
- Good ideas beat out bad ones in argument (and thus if parent's moral theories really are better than some alternative, parent won't lose argument)
- If your ideas are so great, have some faith in them to stand up to criticism
- Criticism Good
- Abandonment Parenting is morally wrong (parents have an obligation to help their children)
- Advice Advice Advice (parents should give children lots of advice, but children should be free to disagree)
- Don't Hurt Children (I can't say this enough)
Messages (2)
the TCS link is dead
the post is from 2003. here: http://fallibleideas.com/essays/taking-children-seriously