FiftyTwo comments on Open Thread, November 16–30, 2012 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: VincentYu 18 November 2012 01:59PM

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Comment author: FiftyTwo 20 November 2012 06:55:33PM *  3 points [-]

My social philosophy essay: Problems between people and groups of people can be fixed by using 'philosophy' which is a way of thinking better, by using ways of thinking that are known to work and carefully checking if you've got it right. This can mean checking if the words you are using mean the same things to you and to other people, if you are acting like some things are true but not saying them, or if you have thought of all the things that are made true by the things you say (or think) are true. People and groups of people often think different things are true, or have different ideas of the best way to fix the same problem. We need them to talk to work out why they don't agree and work out the ways we are going to fix the problems.

Describing philosophy was really hard, can anyone give a good definition of rationality (other than "thinking good").

Comment author: Kindly 20 November 2012 10:39:16PM 3 points [-]

Describing philosophy was really hard, can anyone give a good definition of rationality (other than "thinking good").

A slightly better definition (which still fits within the constraints) would be "thinking well".