torekp comments on [SEQ RERUN] What Do We Mean By "Rationality"? - Less Wrong

1 Post author: MinibearRex 27 March 2013 04:33AM

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

Comments (7)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: torekp 29 March 2013 12:31:18AM *  0 points [-]

Although instrumental rationality is an interesting category, I tend to view it as ultimately boiling down to epistemic rationality. For example, I reason that A leads to B. I wanted B but I didn't want A, and now my motivations start traveling up and down the A -> B causal chain until I reach equilibrium. Or for another example, I notice that if I choose C for reason R, my rational game-partner will likewise choose C for reason R, because of some symmetry in our properties as agents. Now I need to compare the outcome of choices {C, C} to other possibilities, but I can rule out {C, D}, say.

My attraction to various options will change in response to learning these facts. But the role of rationality seems to end with arriving at and facing the facts.

No? Or, beside the point? (But if beside the point, still an interesting new point, I reckon.)

Comment author: MinibearRex 29 March 2013 04:38:10AM 1 point [-]

The trouble is that there is nothing in epistemic rationality that corresponds to "motivations" or "goals" or anything like that. Epistemic rationality can tell you that pushing a button will lead to puppies not being tortured, and not pushing it will lead to puppies being tortured, but unless you have an additional system that incorporates desires for puppies to not be tortured, as well as a system for achieving those desires, that's all you can do with epistemic rationality.

Comment author: torekp 29 March 2013 12:24:44PM 0 points [-]

That's entirely compatible with my point.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 29 March 2013 12:50:13AM 1 point [-]

I see it as exactly the other way around: the only good reason to care about epistemic rationality is because it helps you be instrumentally rational. Obtaining accurate beliefs and then doing nothing with them is intellectual masturbation.

Comment author: shminux 29 March 2013 06:29:08AM 2 points [-]

Obtaining accurate beliefs and then doing nothing with them is intellectual masturbation.

This could be a goal in itself.

Comment author: torekp 29 March 2013 12:28:39PM 0 points [-]

This too, is entirely compatible with my point. What rationality is, and why we care about it, are distinct questions.