DeFranker—many thanks for taking the time, very helpful.
I spent last night thinking about this, and now I understand your (LW’s) points better and my own. To start, I think the ideas of epistemic rationality and instrumental rationality are unassailable as ideas—there are few things that make as much sense as the ideas of what rationality is trying to do, in the abstract.
But, when we say “rationality” is a good idea, I want to understand two fundamental things: In what context does rationality apply, and where it applies, what methodologies, if any, apply to actually practice it. I don’t presuppose any answers to the above—at the same time I don’t want to “practice rationality” unless or before i understand how those two questions are answered or dealt with (I appreciate its not your responsibility to answer them, I’m just expressing them as things I’m considering).
“Weaknesses” of rationality is not an appropriate question—I now understand the visceral reaction—However, by putting rationality in context, one can better understand its usefulness from a practical perspective. Any lack of usefulness, or lack of applicability would be the “weakness/criticism” I was asking about, but upon reflection, I get to the same place by talking about context.
Let me step back a bit to explain why I think these questions are relevant. We all know the phrase “context matters” in the abstract—I would argue that epistemic rationality, in the abstract, is relevant for instrumental rationality because if our model of the world is incorrect, the manner in which we choose to reach our goals in that world will be affected. All I’m really saying here is that “context matters.” Now while most agree that context matters with respect to decision making, there’s an open question as to “what context actually matters. So, there is always a potential debate regarding whether the the world is understood well enough and to the extent necessary in order to successfully practice instrumental rationality—this is clearly a relative/subjective determination.
With that in mind, any attempt to apply instrumental rationality would require some thought about epistemic rationality, and whether my map is sufficient to make a decision. Does rationality, as it is currently practice, offer any guidance on this? Lets pretend the answer is no—that’s fine, but then that’s a potential “flaw” in rationality or hole where rationality alone does not help with an open issue/question that is relevant.
I’m not trying to knock rationality, but I’m not willing to coddle it and pretend its all there is to know if it comes at the cost of minimizing knowledge.
DeFranker—many thanks for taking the time, very helpful.
I spent last night thinking about this, and now I understand your (LW’s) points better and my own. To start, I think the ideas of epistemic rationality and instrumental rationality are unassailable as ideas—there are few things that make as much sense as the ideas of what rationality is trying to do, in the abstract.
But, when we say “rationality” is a good idea, I want to understand two fundamental things: In what context does rationality apply, and where it applies, what methodologies, if any, apply to actually practice it. I don’t presuppose any answers to the above—at the same time I don’t want to “practice rationality” unless or before i understand how those two questions are answered or dealt with (I appreciate its not your responsibility to answer them, I’m just expressing them as things I’m considering).
“Weaknesses” of rationality is not an appropriate question—I now understand the visceral reaction—However, by putting rationality in context, one can better understand its usefulness from a practical perspective. Any lack of usefulness, or lack of applicability would be the “weakness/criticism” I was asking about, but upon reflection, I get to the same place by talking about context.
Let me step back a bit to explain why I think these questions are relevant. We all know the phrase “context matters” in the abstract—I would argue that epistemic rationality, in the abstract, is relevant for instrumental rationality because if our model of the world is incorrect, the manner in which we choose to reach our goals in that world will be affected. All I’m really saying here is that “context matters.” Now while most agree that context matters with respect to decision making, there’s an open question as to “what context actually matters. So, there is always a potential debate regarding whether the the world is understood well enough and to the extent necessary in order to successfully practice instrumental rationality—this is clearly a relative/subjective determination.
With that in mind, any attempt to apply instrumental rationality would require some thought about epistemic rationality, and whether my map is sufficient to make a decision. Does rationality, as it is currently practice, offer any guidance on this? Lets pretend the answer is no—that’s fine, but then that’s a potential “flaw” in rationality or hole where rationality alone does not help with an open issue/question that is relevant.
I’m not trying to knock rationality, but I’m not willing to coddle it and pretend its all there is to know if it comes at the cost of minimizing knowledge.