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Vaniver comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 12 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Xachariah 25 March 2012 11:01AM

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Comment author: Vaniver 27 March 2012 06:27:11PM 2 points [-]

Rationality means setting rational

That sounds circular to me.

goals to accomplish what you actually want, and then understanding the world around you and yourself well enough to systematically and logically accomplish those goals.

That sounds like turning motivations (i.e. goals) into plans.

It would certainly include studying yourself to understand how to generate motivation.

Indeed, as an indirect step.

Comment author: TobyBartels 01 April 2012 04:30:18PM 0 points [-]

Rationality means setting rational

That sounds circular to me.

The adjective ‘rational’ is just superfluous there; the grandparent should simply remove it.

Comment author: Vaniver 01 April 2012 11:17:18PM 0 points [-]

"Rational," as an adjective for goals, typically means something like "internally consistent" or "long-sighted" or "wise," and so in general "rational goals" and "goals" mean different things. In a definition for rationality, though, it's inappropriate.

Comment author: TobyBartels 02 April 2012 05:54:48AM 0 points [-]

I didn't mean that it was superfluous in front of ‘goals’ but that it was superfluous in a definition of ‘rationality’, so we agree about that. And Pringlescan's definition makes sense if it's removed.