It has no moral valence and so whether or not to believe in homeopathy is a purely empirical claim. Take something instead like abortion. Under what conditions we should allow abortions is much more of a claim about our underlying axiomatic systems. It seems quite obvious that exposure to different media/arguments can drastically change the typical person's views on abortion, and even for the particularly strong willed/thoughtful will nudge the person's opinion.
Up-to-lizardman-constant, no one believes in the "strong homeopathy hypothesis" that diluting chemicals with water makes them more powerful. But there are many "weaker homeopathy hypotheses" that I'll bet I can convince you of: Consider your typical hypocondriac that goes to a doctors office and always demands getting some sort of medication. This person will experience lots of negative side effects of medication. Their health will be meaningfully improved by becoming convinced that homeopathic medicine works and taking those "medications" instead of actual prescription medications. One type of maximally persuasive argument about homeopathy would argue for a weaker hypothesis like this, but you could just state that this isn't actually arguing for homeopathy, and so is axiomatically not the maximally persuasive argument.
p
Homeopathy is a stupid example for two reasons:
It has no moral valence and so whether or not to believe in homeopathy is a purely empirical claim. Take something instead like abortion. Under what conditions we should allow abortions is much more of a claim about our underlying axiomatic systems. It seems quite obvious that exposure to different media/arguments can drastically change the typical person's views on abortion, and even for the particularly strong willed/thoughtful will nudge the person's opinion.
Up-to-lizardman-constant, no one believes in the "strong homeopathy hypothesis" that diluting chemicals with water makes them more powerful. But there are many "weaker homeopathy hypotheses" that I'll bet I can convince you of: Consider your typical hypocondriac that goes to a doctors office and always demands getting some sort of medication. This person will experience lots of negative side effects of medication. Their health will be meaningfully improved by becoming convinced that homeopathic medicine works and taking those "medications" instead of actual prescription medications. One type of maximally persuasive argument about homeopathy would argue for a weaker hypothesis like this, but you could just state that this isn't actually arguing for homeopathy, and so is axiomatically not the maximally persuasive argument.
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