Survival itself implies value through a survivorship bias
Evidence
What is the appeal of historical value? First, there is a survivorship bias: anything that remains with us today is assumed to have greater intrinsic value. Humans are more likely to preserve high-quality luxury goods than cheap kitsch. This certainly applies to artworks. Philosopher David Hume muses, “A real genius, the longer his works endure, and the more wide they are spread, the more sincere is the admiration which he meets with.” This explains why “the same Homer, who pleased at Athens and Rome two thousand years ago, is still admired at Paris and at London.” We also extend this principle to everyday behaviors. An arbitrary practice must be worth continuing if generation after generation has decided to choose it over alternatives. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 644
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Older conventions get chosen because they lower social risk — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 646; Moral systems are judged by survival value, not by preference — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1014; Survivor bias distorts the study of religious success (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Survivor bias distorts the study of religious success
#expands(0.78) - Justifying a life requires separating value from motivation.
#qualifies(0.75) — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 134 - Moral systems are judged by survival value, not by preference
#corroborates(0.72) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1014 - Risk discourse retroactively moralizes outcomes whose causality it denies beforehand
#qualifies(0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 342 - Human reasoning creates a paradox regarding the value of life.
#expands(0.72) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 104