Promoted to curated: I think the history of science is one of the most natural places to look for insights into rationality. And in the history of science, the question “Why the west?” is one of the most obviously important ones that could shed light on what allows people to make scientific discoveries. I am pretty excited about similar analysis and summary like this on LessWrong, as well as people taking what has been written here so far and asking more followup questions.
I also found a lot of the discussion and comments quite valuable, which is also worth highlighting and is another reason for curation.
I think my biggest problem with this post is the degree to which it does end up mostly being a summary of other people’s work, in a way that feels like it makes it harder to really grok. I feel like a lot of things are lost if someone tries to summarize someone else’s view, instead of trying to explain their own view, and I feel like this shows in at least some parts of this post.
Promoted to curated: I think the history of science is one of the most natural places to look for insights into rationality. And in the history of science, the question “Why the west?” is one of the most obviously important ones that could shed light on what allows people to make scientific discoveries. I am pretty excited about similar analysis and summary like this on LessWrong, as well as people taking what has been written here so far and asking more followup questions.
I also found a lot of the discussion and comments quite valuable, which is also worth highlighting and is another reason for curation.
I think my biggest problem with this post is the degree to which it does end up mostly being a summary of other people’s work, in a way that feels like it makes it harder to really grok. I feel like a lot of things are lost if someone tries to summarize someone else’s view, instead of trying to explain their own view, and I feel like this shows in at least some parts of this post.