I feel like “a healthy rationalist community should not make arguments” is pretty much just a slight rephrasing of “strong rationalist communication is healthiest and most efficient when practically empty of arguments”, but I’m open to suggestions for alternative phrasings (especially if Valentine wants to comment).
They’re quite different. The latter is a qualified description. The former is an unqualified prescription. Even if the prescription were qualified, it does not automatically follow from the description, because it is not necessarily the case that focusing on making less arguments is a way to get healthier—in the same way that “healthiest people tend to exercise” doesn’t imply “get out of bed and go for a jog” is gonna help sick people. Goodheart’s law has a tendency to screw these kind of things up.
Sometimes these kinds of things can work (maybe exercising more will keep you from getting sick?), but in those cases it is still an additional piece which is not contained in “healthiest tends to look like X”. Every time you add in an additional piece because it seems implied from your perspective, you risk changing the meaning to something that the person saying it wouldn’t endorse. When you’re reading someone whose worldview is quite different to your own, this can happen very rapidly, so it’s crucial to read precisely what they are saying and note which inferences are your own rather.
They’re quite different. The latter is a qualified description. The former is an unqualified prescription. Even if the prescription were qualified, it does not automatically follow from the description, because it is not necessarily the case that focusing on making less arguments is a way to get healthier—in the same way that “healthiest people tend to exercise” doesn’t imply “get out of bed and go for a jog” is gonna help sick people. Goodheart’s law has a tendency to screw these kind of things up.
Sometimes these kinds of things can work (maybe exercising more will keep you from getting sick?), but in those cases it is still an additional piece which is not contained in “healthiest tends to look like X”. Every time you add in an additional piece because it seems implied from your perspective, you risk changing the meaning to something that the person saying it wouldn’t endorse. When you’re reading someone whose worldview is quite different to your own, this can happen very rapidly, so it’s crucial to read precisely what they are saying and note which inferences are your own rather.