At a certain level, instrumental rationality is a method of making better choices, so applying it where there doesn’t appear to be a choice is not very coherent. Instrumental rationality doesn’t have anything to say about whether you should like singing. But if want skill at singing, instrumental rationality suggests music lessons.
As an empirical matter, I suggest there are lots of people who would like to be able to sing better who do not take music lessons for various reasons. We can divide those reasons into two patterns: (1) “I want something else more than singing skill and I lack the time/money/etc to do both,” or (2) “Nothing material prevents me from taking singing lessons, but I do not because of anxiety/embarrassment/social norms.”
Again, I assert that a substantial number of people decide not to take singing lessons based solely on type 2 reasons. This community thinks that this pattern of behavior is sub-optimal and would like to figure out how to change it.
Here I agree almost fully!
My problem is that people aren’t fully rational beings. That some of the people might want to take lessons on some level but don’t can’t be attributed only to their thoughts, but to their emotional environment. A persons thoughts need to be mobilised into action for something to take part. Sometimes this is a point of a person needing more basic confidence, sometimes a person needs their thoughts mirrored at them and confirmed. As in, speaking with a friend who’ll encourage them. Thinking alone isn’t enough.
I admire the community’s mission to try and change people. But by the same line of argument I use above I think focusing only on how people think and how they might think better is not going to be enough.
I think rationality should also be viewed as a social construct.
I admire the community’s mission to try and change people. But by the same line of argument I use above I think focusing only on how people think and how they might think better is not going to be enough.
One level up, consider who does the focusing how. The goal may be to build a bridge, an tune an emotion, or correct the thinking in your own mind. One way of attaining that goal is through figuring out what interventions lead to what consequences, and finding a plan that wins.
That’s what we’ve been saying. Not all of a person’s thoughts are rational. And I certainly don’t assert someone can easily think themselves out of being depressed or anxious.
I think rationality should also be viewed as a social construct.
I think that the goals people set are socially constructed. Thus, the ends rationality seeks to achieve are socially constructed. Once that is established, what further insight is contained in the assertion that rationality itself is socially constructed? To put it slightly differently, I don’t think mathematics is socially constructed, but it’s pretty obvious to me that what we choose to add together is socially constructed.
That’s what we’ve been saying. Not all of a person’s thoughts are rational. And I certainly don’t assert someone can easily think themselves out of being depressed or anxious.
My point there wasn’t that people’s thoughts aren’t all rational, though I agree with that. My point was that not all human actions are tied to thoughts or intentions. There are habits, twitches, there is emotional momentum driving people to do things they’d never dream of and may regret for the rest of their lives. People often don’t think in the first place.
Once that is established, what further insight is contained in the assertion that rationality itself is socially constructed?
I think that, when one’s goal is to improve and spread rationality, a elementary questions should be: When, and under which circumstances does a person think? How does a social situation affect your thinking?
So instead of just asking how do we think and how do we improve that? It could also be usefull to ask when do we think and how do we improve that?
At some point in the future we could then inform people of the kind of social environment they might build to help them better formulate and achieve goals. Like people with anger problems being taught to ‘stop! And count to ten’ other people might be taught to think at certain recognisable critical moments they currently tend to walk past without realising.
Ha, you caught me using loose language.
At a certain level, instrumental rationality is a method of making better choices, so applying it where there doesn’t appear to be a choice is not very coherent. Instrumental rationality doesn’t have anything to say about whether you should like singing. But if want skill at singing, instrumental rationality suggests music lessons.
As an empirical matter, I suggest there are lots of people who would like to be able to sing better who do not take music lessons for various reasons. We can divide those reasons into two patterns: (1) “I want something else more than singing skill and I lack the time/money/etc to do both,” or (2) “Nothing material prevents me from taking singing lessons, but I do not because of anxiety/embarrassment/social norms.”
Again, I assert that a substantial number of people decide not to take singing lessons based solely on type 2 reasons. This community thinks that this pattern of behavior is sub-optimal and would like to figure out how to change it.
Here I agree almost fully! My problem is that people aren’t fully rational beings. That some of the people might want to take lessons on some level but don’t can’t be attributed only to their thoughts, but to their emotional environment. A persons thoughts need to be mobilised into action for something to take part. Sometimes this is a point of a person needing more basic confidence, sometimes a person needs their thoughts mirrored at them and confirmed. As in, speaking with a friend who’ll encourage them. Thinking alone isn’t enough.
I admire the community’s mission to try and change people. But by the same line of argument I use above I think focusing only on how people think and how they might think better is not going to be enough. I think rationality should also be viewed as a social construct.
One level up, consider who does the focusing how. The goal may be to build a bridge, an tune an emotion, or correct the thinking in your own mind. One way of attaining that goal is through figuring out what interventions lead to what consequences, and finding a plan that wins.
That’s what we’ve been saying. Not all of a person’s thoughts are rational. And I certainly don’t assert someone can easily think themselves out of being depressed or anxious.
I think that the goals people set are socially constructed. Thus, the ends rationality seeks to achieve are socially constructed. Once that is established, what further insight is contained in the assertion that rationality itself is socially constructed?
To put it slightly differently, I don’t think mathematics is socially constructed, but it’s pretty obvious to me that what we choose to add together is socially constructed.
My point there wasn’t that people’s thoughts aren’t all rational, though I agree with that. My point was that not all human actions are tied to thoughts or intentions. There are habits, twitches, there is emotional momentum driving people to do things they’d never dream of and may regret for the rest of their lives. People often don’t think in the first place.
I think that, when one’s goal is to improve and spread rationality, a elementary questions should be: When, and under which circumstances does a person think? How does a social situation affect your thinking? So instead of just asking how do we think and how do we improve that? It could also be usefull to ask when do we think and how do we improve that?
At some point in the future we could then inform people of the kind of social environment they might build to help them better formulate and achieve goals. Like people with anger problems being taught to ‘stop! And count to ten’ other people might be taught to think at certain recognisable critical moments they currently tend to walk past without realising.