HamletHenna comments on Don't call yourself a rationalist. - Less Wrong

16 Post author: KenChen 14 October 2011 08:26PM

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

Comments (118)

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

Comment author: [deleted] 16 October 2011 11:03:34PM *  5 points [-]

Perhaps groups that identify with rationality generally settle on one set of beliefs, and then go about rehearsing their arguments, double counting their evidence, and building up unjustified positive affect, while groups that identify with critical thinking try to admit what they don't know and focus their efforts on finding out?

Like the difference between between "The Brethren of Totally Pure Chastity" and "Inexpert supporters of the very difficult struggle to be effective and not evil".

Comment author: ciphergoth 17 October 2011 10:34:48AM 1 point [-]

What real examples are you thinking of?

Comment author: JoshuaZ 17 October 2011 02:20:03PM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure specifically which examples Hamlet is thinking of, but Objectivists would be an obvious example of a group that tried to be rational and through the problems Hamlet listed as well a handful of other problems like evaporative cooling settled on a single set of beliefs across a wide-variety of different issues and haven't updated much in the last fifty years.