Kaj_Sotala comments on Recommended reading for new rationalists - Less Wrong

27 Post author: XFrequentist 09 July 2009 07:47PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (158)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: brian_jaress 10 July 2009 09:35:05AM -2 points [-]

I recommend any collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould.

I know, I know. Yudowsky [hates him][Yudkowsky], John Maynard Smith [thinks everyone else hates him][Smith], Dawkins [gave him his due but disagreed][Dawkins], etc.

But, if you read his essays with an eye toward the workings of the mind, specifically how humans think when they theorize (which I consider his main topic) you will find useful things there that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 11 July 2009 08:35:53PM 0 points [-]

you will find useful things there that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else.

Could you give some examples?

Comment author: brian_jaress 12 July 2009 09:42:12AM 0 points [-]

The analyses I mentioned in another comment, saying they might be dangerous, are also quite useful. The specific ideas he analyzes are often hard to find even mentioned elsewhere.

What's useful about the analyses is that they are fairly detailed case studies. They weren't written just to show that the ideas were wrong, or warn of making similar mistakes, but to give a feel for how the ideas seemed to the people who came up with them.