I suspect that achieving a clear mental picture of the sheer depth and breadth of the mind projection fallacy is a powerful mental tool. It's hard for me to state this in clearer terms, though, because I don't have a wide collection of good examples of the mind projection fallacy.
In a discussion yesterday, we all had trouble finding actual example of the mind projection fallacy. Overall, we had essentially two examples:
- Taste. People frequently confuse "I like this" and "this is good." (This really subsumes the attractiveness example.)
- Probability. This seems like a pretty good just-so-story for where frequentist probability comes from, as opposed to Bayesian probability.
Searching for "mind projection fallacy" on Less Wrong, I also see:
- Thinking that purpose is an inherent property of something, instead of it having been placed there by someone for some reason. (here)
- Mulling or arguing over definitions to solve object-level problems. (actually, most the ways words can be wrong sequence)
The idea that morality is objective if it comes from a deity is a mind projection fallacy. It can take two forms:
1) For the average person, assuming that if you think following God is a good idea, and God says it is a good idea, then it must objectively be a good idea. When prodded for details of how "God says it" turns into "it is objectively right," you will find these people often have only vague and plainly incorrect ideas ("If you don't you'll go to hell" as if might makes right, "He created us" as if creators have complete moral authority over creations 100% of the time, etc.)
2) God is an all-powerful and omnipresent being, therefore, by magic, God's subjective desires become objective desires.
Either God's laws are good ideas in people's heads or they're good ideas in God's head; neither makes them "objective," and philosophers now accept that Divine Morality is a subjectivist theory of ethics.
Relatedly, the idea that something can be meaningful without a mind for it to be meaningful to. See William Lane Craig's writings on Ultimate Meaning. Nothing can be meaningful to a rock. What many theists mean when they say God gives your life ultimate meaning is that it gives meaning subjective to God. Again, if you don't care what God thinks--say you're a paperclip maximizer and the only thing you care about is making paperclips--the heaven/hell endgame won't be particularly meaningful to you.
Even in Goedel, Escher, Bach, when Hofstadter concludes that intrinsic meaning is possible in encoded messages, he downplays a bit the necessary caveat that he means it can only exist for minds like ours. If the universe had no minds, there would be no meaning.
The Labor Theory of Value is a mind projection fallacy. Value is something that can only exist in minds, and if everyone were to suddenly change their minds about that which is valuable, all the labor in the world used to produce a previously desired product wouldn't mean a thing. Marxists recognize this, which is why they talk about "socially necessary labor-time," a self-defeating addendum if there ever was one.
This is mostly an argument about definitions. If everyone's minds were modified so that people would start valuing the eating of babies, there is still a clear sense in which it won't become a right thing. If you are talking about that which most people value at any given time, then certainly it depends on what most people value at... (read more)