Tone arguments are often frowned upon, but these is a difference between saying “you guys are doing a specific mistake here, let me explain, because this is very important” and “you guys are hopelessly wrong, I am going away and starting my own dojo”—even if technically both of them mean “you are wrong, and I am right”.
It would be especially bad if the guy starting his own new dojo happens to be right about a specific thing X and also to be wrong about a specific thing Y. Now believing in “neither X nor Y” becomes the mark of the old tribe, and believing in “both X and Y” becomes the mark of the new tribe. Which seems to me what typically happens in politics.
I’d like to be able to consider the “postrationalist” or “metarationalist” claims individually, perhaps to agree with some, disagree with some, and express uncertaintly about some. Instead of having two separate packages, and being told to choose the better one.
(Then of course remains the problem with the identity of a “rationalist”, where I don’t expect people to agree, because that’s a thing of aesthetical preferences and social pressures. I’m not pretending any middle ground here; I enjoy the label of “rationalist” or “x-rationalist”, and I try to be the one who can cooperate and is willing to pay the cost, hoping to become stronger, as a team. I don’t think my contribution matters a lot, but I don’t see that as a reason for defecting.)
Tone arguments are often frowned upon, but these is a difference between saying “you guys are doing a specific mistake here, let me explain, because this is very important” and “you guys are hopelessly wrong, I am going away and starting my own dojo”—even if technically both of them mean “you are wrong, and I am right”.
It would be especially bad if the guy starting his own new dojo happens to be right about a specific thing X and also to be wrong about a specific thing Y. Now believing in “neither X nor Y” becomes the mark of the old tribe, and believing in “both X and Y” becomes the mark of the new tribe. Which seems to me what typically happens in politics.
I’d like to be able to consider the “postrationalist” or “metarationalist” claims individually, perhaps to agree with some, disagree with some, and express uncertaintly about some. Instead of having two separate packages, and being told to choose the better one.
(Then of course remains the problem with the identity of a “rationalist”, where I don’t expect people to agree, because that’s a thing of aesthetical preferences and social pressures. I’m not pretending any middle ground here; I enjoy the label of “rationalist” or “x-rationalist”, and I try to be the one who can cooperate and is willing to pay the cost, hoping to become stronger, as a team. I don’t think my contribution matters a lot, but I don’t see that as a reason for defecting.)