+++ /dev/null
-Title: The Two-Type Taxonomy Is a Useful Approximation for a More Detailed Causal Model
-Date: 2022-03-30 05:00
-Category: commentary
-Tags: causality, two-type taxonomy
-Status: draft
-
-A lot of people tend to balk when first hearing about the [two-type taxonomy of male-to-female transsexualism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanchard's_transsexualism_typology). What, one scoffs, you're saying _all_ trans women are exactly one of these two things? It seems at once both too simple and too specific.
-
-In some ways, it's a fair complaint! Psychology is _complicated_; every human is their own unique snowflake. But it would be impossible to navigate the world using the "every human is their own unique _maximum-entropy_ snowflake" theory. In order to [compress our observations](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mB95aqTSJLNR9YyjH/message-length) of the world we see, we end up distilling our observations into categories, clusters, diagnoses, taxons: no one matches any particular clinical-profile stereotype _exactly_, but [the world makes more sense when you have language for theoretical abstractions](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/ontology-of-psychiatric-conditions) like ["comas"](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/11/does-the-glasgow-coma-scale-exist-do-comas/) or "depression" or "bipolar disorder"—or "autogynephilia".
-
-Concepts and theories are good to the extent that they can "pay for" their complexity by making more accurate predictions.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_graph
-
-
-
-Let me explain.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[the taxonomy can emerge as a shorthand for a complicated causal graph]
-
-[What are the reasons transitioning could possibly make sense to someone?—]
-
-[1. actually being really feminine]
-
-[2. beautiful pure self-identity thing related to AGP]
-
-[3. cultural/ideological factors]
-
-
-_(Thanks to the immortal [Tailcalled](https://surveyanon.wordpress.com/) for discussion.)_
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff