But I have this unfortunate habit of treating people as people, and not internal combustion engines to be optimized. Even more unfortunately, it’s not just a habit, it’s a preference. I have a strange compulsion towards honesty, and respecting the autonomy of others, and something of an aversion to people who don’t have that strange compulsion.
Apply your epistemic rationality to the society and the agents around you as well—they are part of reality, too.
Yes, one can.
But I have this unfortunate habit of treating people as people, and not internal combustion engines to be optimized. Even more unfortunately, it’s not just a habit, it’s a preference. I have a strange compulsion towards honesty, and respecting the autonomy of others, and something of an aversion to people who don’t have that strange compulsion.
Read more carefully—I’ll bold the relevant part: “Apply your epistemic rationality to the society...”
And what does apply mean to you when it comes to epistemic rationality? Just to know, or to do something with that knowledge?
“Apply” means “learn” in this context.
Applying epistemic rationality means you try to make your map match the territory as well as you can.
What you do with this map is an entirely separate question (which is, largely, a function of your goals and instrumental rationality).