Nick_Tarleton comments on Rational feelings: a crucial disambiguation - Less Wrong

16 Post author: Academian 13 March 2010 12:48AM

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Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 13 March 2010 03:27:29AM 3 points [-]

Important point. One nitpick:

If you think of the happiness as a behavior, something that you're doing, then the question is secretly asking about instrumental rationality: whether you're applying your beliefs correctly to attain your values. In our opening example, the question becomes "Does feeling happy serve my values?", or simply "Do I value feeling happy?". If you're almost anyone, the answer is easily "yes".

Preferences over feelings can be context-sensitive; there are some circumstances under which many people would prefer not to be happy (or at least honestly claim to, whether or not they'd agree on reflection).

Comment author: Academian 13 March 2010 10:52:10AM 0 points [-]

Yes, valuing happiness context-dependently is more general and to be distinguished from fearing its "irrationality". Interestingly, until people reflect to distinguish these cognitive phenomena, they might not yet be operating separately in their brainware, in which case how they reflect can affect the development of their values and hence the conclusion. If one has been reflecting (consciously or unconsciously) with the bias that "rationality" is the only considerable meta-value of feelings, then one is more likely to end up in the second category.

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