Salemicus comments on Rationality Quotes Thread February 2015 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Vaniver 01 February 2015 03:53PM

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Comment author: Salemicus 03 February 2015 06:02:54PM 12 points [-]

I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.

Erasmus, Letter to an unidentified friend (1489)

Comment author: fortyeridania 04 February 2015 06:42:05AM 6 points [-]

What is the relationship to rationality? This seems simply to be a cheer for reading and a jeer for pretentious book-collecting.

Comment author: Salemicus 04 February 2015 09:12:49AM 13 points [-]

Reread the quote. Erasmus isn't just talking about reading. There are multiple relations:

  • Knowledge is useless sitting there untouched you have to actively make use of it.
  • to truly understand something you have to make that knowledge your own, write down things, make annotations, work through examples, read and reread the book. You can't just absorb the knowledge by skimming through.
  • There are lost purposes here. How many people have books just to look cultured, or read books just to say they have read them. Think of all the famous unread books or Gatsby's famous library.
Comment author: fortyeridania 04 February 2015 11:23:13PM 11 points [-]

I agree with each of your bullet points, and they do help clarify the Erasmus quotation's relationship to rationality. Thanks.

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