Hansonian Optimism

Responds to Ozy's worry that Hansonian explanations (people do good for selfish signaling reasons) negate real goodness. Scott's King-and-Viziers parable: the mind is a benevolent King who only receives information from evil, self-interested Viziers, so all his decrees reflect their biases -- yet the King himself can be genuinely good. We identify with the King of our minds, not the Viziers, so people are 'good by nature, far better than their actions suggest.' Evil = habits of mind that make it easy for your Viziers to fool you (self-justifying 'they'd do the same to me'). Connects to Trivers' theory of self-deception. A precursor to his later goodness/niceness and Elephant-in-the-Brain themes.

Quality 72 · Strong. A lovely, original early parable-essay; the King/Viziers frame does real philosophical work reconciling Hansonian signaling with human goodness, and it's memorable. Strong.

Claude’s paradigm shift 55 · Moderate. Low-Major-shift. The King/Viziers parable is a fresh, original frame for the goodness-vs-selfish-signaling problem in 2013.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. A lovely early parable-essay whose King/Viziers frame does real philosophical work reconciling Hansonian signaling with genuine human goodness (we identify with the King, not the Viziers). Conceptual influence within rationalist discourse, no material change — low RWI.