I have yet to hear what anyone even means by “rationalism” or “rationalist,” let alone “x-rationality.” People often refer to the “techniques” or “Art of rationality” (a particularly irksome phrase), though as best I can tell, these consist of Bayes theorem and a half-dozen or so logical fallacies that were likely known since the time of Aristotle. Now, I’ve had an intuitive handle on Bayes theorem since learning of it in high school pre-calc, and spotting a logical fallacy isn’t particularly tough for anyone accustomed to close reading of philosophy or doing science (or who’s studied for the LSAT). So apart from simply calling oneself a “rationalist” and feeling really good about being a part of some “rationalist community” (much like Dennett’s tone-deaf coining of the term “brights” to describe atheists), is there actually anything to this?
I have yet to hear what anyone even means by “rationalism” or “rationalist,” let alone “x-rationality.” People often refer to the “techniques” or “Art of rationality” (a particularly irksome phrase), though as best I can tell, these consist of Bayes theorem and a half-dozen or so logical fallacies that were likely known since the time of Aristotle. Now, I’ve had an intuitive handle on Bayes theorem since learning of it in high school pre-calc, and spotting a logical fallacy isn’t particularly tough for anyone accustomed to close reading of philosophy or doing science (or who’s studied for the LSAT). So apart from simply calling oneself a “rationalist” and feeling really good about being a part of some “rationalist community” (much like Dennett’s tone-deaf coining of the term “brights” to describe atheists), is there actually anything to this?