Short and sweet video from Julia Galef on what she / we should mean when we’re talking about rationality. As a self-identifying rationalist, I thought I’d take a peek and report back.
Epistemic – about justified knowing – how we reason what we believe – explanatory understanding and believing what we understand to be true meaning. Instrumental – about consistent and optimal behaviour towards what matters, what we care about. Generally the two should be aligned, but we all have different strengths & weaknesses, biases & propensities, short-term tactics & long-run strategies.
Completely non-contentious.
In fact her point is to ensure when we talk about rationality, we don’t limit ourselves to some narrow objective definition of rationality. The broadest conception of rationality, not just narrow conceptions of truth being “cold rational” in contrast to more subjective, empathic or emotional feeling.
Hat tip to David Gurteen for the link. Also another video on the good faith principle – topical recently on honesty and charity in argument discourse.
[Post Note – The next video is also a simple visualisation of Bayes Theorem, one of several, caught my attention with the reference to Earl Warren. A good resource, a good speaker / presenter.]