Comment on A Rational Education

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:29:16 GMT

We're much better in this crowd at overcoming the surface manifestations of self-deception promoting processes than we are at resisting self-deception.

Yet another example of Goodhart's Law, no? How does one defend against that? If self-deception usually operates below our conscious radar, then you usually have to shine conscious attention on it in order to notice it, and I assume you have to be able to notice it in order to fight it. But if rewarding oneself for successfully focusing conscious attention on self-deception, over time, inevitably makes one aware primarily of only the surface manifestations of self-deception, then attempting to increase one's focus on self-deception is largely futile. I really don't know what to suggest, but I urgently want a strategy.

for instrumental rationality the optimal courses are dance, yoga, and above all acting.

Let's say acting is a useful dark art. What on earth does that have to do with yoga or dancing? Yoga tends to improve my posture and breathing and calm, but those aren't dark arts; those are purely defensive light arts. They make me less susceptible to stress and panic, but not necessarily better able to mislead or manipulate people. Dancing, on a very, very, very good day makes me more sexually attractive, but surely you're not suggesting that the key to epistemic rationality is to seduce one's ideological opponents on the dance floor? I'm more than a bit confused, here.

Discuss