Thanks. It's a work in progress to try to question the fundamentals of belief, and the discussions it has generated show it's surprising difficult to get intelligent people to question their own cherished beliefs, which in the case of rationalists in theory should not be the case.
"Rationalists" are just as inclined to use "rationalism" to reinforce the priors they came in with as opposed to challenging them. That's not the only reason, but I consider the whole "movement" silly.
I'm not very familiar with the movement, but after a few interactions with them I feel like they are even more inclined to reject evidence against their beliefs than the average person. I debated Scott Alexander in reddit, and after I pointed out fallacies he committed, he straight up rationalized that making fallacies wasn't a problem, and me pointing them out was too basic and "uninteresting".
He said by pointing out fallacies taught in philosophy 101 I was not responding to his argument, but isn't the whole point of fallacies being taught in philosophy 101 to avoid making them in arguments? A fallacious argument is invalid, so "this is a fallacy" is all the response needed.
I don't see how he could possibly think he is beyond the realm of fallacies.
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Notes -
This is all part of a ploy to get me viewing another mediocre substack.
Not today!
All that glitters is not gold.
If it's any consolation, I like your Substack and don't think it's too mediocre.
Thanks. It's a work in progress to try to question the fundamentals of belief, and the discussions it has generated show it's surprising difficult to get intelligent people to question their own cherished beliefs, which in the case of rationalists in theory should not be the case.
"Rationalists" are just as inclined to use "rationalism" to reinforce the priors they came in with as opposed to challenging them. That's not the only reason, but I consider the whole "movement" silly.
I'm not very familiar with the movement, but after a few interactions with them I feel like they are even more inclined to reject evidence against their beliefs than the average person. I debated Scott Alexander in reddit, and after I pointed out fallacies he committed, he straight up rationalized that making fallacies wasn't a problem, and me pointing them out was too basic and "uninteresting".
He said by pointing out fallacies taught in philosophy 101 I was not responding to his argument, but isn't the whole point of fallacies being taught in philosophy 101 to avoid making them in arguments? A fallacious argument is invalid, so "this is a fallacy" is all the response needed.
I don't see how he could possibly think he is beyond the realm of fallacies.
I'd love to see a link to this if you wouldn't mind.
Sorry about the delay.
Here's the subthread: Rationalists are too easily duped.
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