Rationalists should win, and feeling vaguely unhappy as you go about your life but not knowing why is not winning. The point is to overcome bias, not to pretend it isn’t there (and believing one isn’t biased when one is is one of the more pernicious and common biases). Sure, if you have a technique for magically making people not racist then that’s better than a technique for figuring out how racist they are, but in the absence of the former the latter is useful.
if you have a technique for magically making people not racist
Pinker points to some non-magical causes: greater commerce, greater literacy, larger political and military coalitions. Essentially, greater exposure allowing people to view other people as useful (instrumentally in many cases), rational beings. He points to how much progress inter-racial relationships and gay relationships have made in acceptance; it wasn’t due to people moving away from the people they didn’t like. The relevant point is that people don’t feel those biases as strongly any longer.
The point is to overcome bias, not to pretend it isn’t there
I really like the way you put this.
Rationalists should win
I guess I think deliberately acting on implicit racist bias doesn’t seem like a win for a particular rationalist or rationalism generally
Rationalists should win, and feeling vaguely unhappy as you go about your life but not knowing why is not winning. The point is to overcome bias, not to pretend it isn’t there (and believing one isn’t biased when one is is one of the more pernicious and common biases). Sure, if you have a technique for magically making people not racist then that’s better than a technique for figuring out how racist they are, but in the absence of the former the latter is useful.
Pinker points to some non-magical causes: greater commerce, greater literacy, larger political and military coalitions. Essentially, greater exposure allowing people to view other people as useful (instrumentally in many cases), rational beings. He points to how much progress inter-racial relationships and gay relationships have made in acceptance; it wasn’t due to people moving away from the people they didn’t like. The relevant point is that people don’t feel those biases as strongly any longer.
I really like the way you put this.
I guess I think deliberately acting on implicit racist bias doesn’t seem like a win for a particular rationalist or rationalism generally