= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
fowlertm comments on Truth: It's Not That Great - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (58)
Huh? What? Wait a moment....
These two are entirely different things. Under the local definitions, rationalism is making sure the map looks like the territory and doing stuff which will actually advance your goals. Notably, rationalism is silent about values -- it's perfectly possibly to be a rational Nazi. You can crudely define rationalism as "being grounded in reality".
Altruism, on the other hand, is all about values. A very specific set of values.
You can't "rebrand" a movement that way -- what you imply is a wholesale substitution of one movement with another.
I'm fairly certain ChrisHallquist isn't suggesting we re-brand rationality 'effective altruism', otherwise I'd agree with you.
As far as I can tell he was talking about the kinds of virtues people associate with those brands (notably 'being effective' for EA and 'truth-seeking' for rationalism) and suggesting that the branding of EA is better because the virtue associated with it is always virtuous when it comes to actually doing things, whereas truth-seeking leads to (as he says) analysis paralysis.
The virtue of "being effective" is not always virtuous unless you're willing to see virtue in constructing effective baby-mulching machines...
I think we’re using different definitions of virtue. Whereas I’m using the definition of virtue as a a good or useful quality of a thing, you’re taking it to mean a behavior showing high moral standards. I don’t think anyone would argue that the 12 virtues of rationality are moral, but it is still a reasonable use of English to describe them as virtues.
Just to be clear: The argument I am asserting is that ChrisHallquist is not in any way suggesting that we should rename rationality as effective altruism.
I hope this makes my previous comment clearer :)