Emile comments on Pancritical Rationalism Can Apply to Preferences and Behavior - Less Wrong

1 Post author: TimFreeman 25 May 2011 12:06PM

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Comment author: Emile 25 May 2011 03:37:32PM *  1 point [-]

In all cases, if you're doing or preferring or believing something that has a valid criticism, the response does not necessarily have to be "don't do/prefer/believe that". The response might be "In light of the alternatives I know about and the criticisms of all available alternatives, I accept that".

Of course, another response might be "I don't have time to consider any of that right now", but in that case you are at a level of urgency where this article won't be directly useful to you. You'll have to get yourself straightened out when things are less urgent and make use of that preparation when things are urgent.

A third response: I already have a process for correcting my beliefs, i.e. applying the things I learnt on LessWrong, and am not particularly interested in learning a whole new school of thought that has it's own vocabulary and may or may not be isomorphic to what I'm already doing.

There are probably worthwhile things to learn in Pancritical Rationalism, but I'd much prefer if it was presented by comparing to what we've already talked about on LessWrong (what is different, what is new, what is the same thing but phrased a bit differently), rather than leaving it to us to figure out which part of this map to what we're already doing and how.

Comment author: TimFreeman 25 May 2011 04:21:10PM 0 points [-]

A third response: I already have a process for correcting my beliefs, i.e. applying the things I learnt on LessWrong, and am not particularly interested in learning a whole new school of thought that has it's own vocabulary and may or may not be isomorphic to what I'm already doing.

Either you're missing my point, or there's something good I didn't read on LessWrong.

What, if anything, did LessWrong teach you about how to examine your preferences and your behavior?