-isms are bad to identify with, but make philosophies easier to talk about. People here already call themselves aspiring rationalists; they’re already identifying with a group. But they’re generally smart enough to keep that from crippling their ability to think. Having an -ism would allow ‘our movement’ to have a Wikipedia page and the like, for instance. It’s just a mechanism of nomenclature.
I heuristically associate people who “reject all labels” or “refuse to be pigeonholed” with a) High Broderism, b) conceited windbaggism, c) lack of intent to communicate clearly and efficiently. I also think “aspiring rationalist” is a perfectly reasonable thing for someone to call herself.
But I do hope you write your post and make your argument—perhaps you don’t mean to say anything like the things I am imagining.
They do so rather context sensitively from what I’ve seen. It seems a not unreasonable name to call one who is aspiring to be more rational. I think that perhaps you’re taking it more seriously than most? Two cult koans comes to mind.
-isms are bad to identify with, but make philosophies easier to talk about. People here already call themselves aspiring rationalists; they’re already identifying with a group. But they’re generally smart enough to keep that from crippling their ability to think. Having an -ism would allow ‘our movement’ to have a Wikipedia page and the like, for instance. It’s just a mechanism of nomenclature.
If people here really do call themselves aspiring rationalists, especially elsewhere, that’s bad. I really need to finish my post on this.
I heuristically associate people who “reject all labels” or “refuse to be pigeonholed” with a) High Broderism, b) conceited windbaggism, c) lack of intent to communicate clearly and efficiently. I also think “aspiring rationalist” is a perfectly reasonable thing for someone to call herself.
But I do hope you write your post and make your argument—perhaps you don’t mean to say anything like the things I am imagining.
They do so rather context sensitively from what I’ve seen. It seems a not unreasonable name to call one who is aspiring to be more rational. I think that perhaps you’re taking it more seriously than most? Two cult koans comes to mind.