In a certain sense rationality is using evidence efficiently. Perhaps overemphasis on that type of rationality tempts one to be sparing with evidence—after all if you use less evidence to reach your conclusion you used whatever evidence you did use more efficiently! But not using evidence doesn’t mean there is more evidence left afterwards, not using free or very cheap evidence is wasteful, so proper rationality, even in that sense, means using all easily available evidence when practical.
I’m not sure I follow, why leave certain observations out of your judgement to “use evidence efficiently”? Do you mean to use your resources efficiently, like time and brain power? In that case, you can just define it as using resources as efficiently as possible. You need evidence to gain knowledge, you need knowledge to base theories, and you need theories to decide how to most effectively spend your resources, which can be spent on anything including finding more evidence in the first place.
I’m not sure I follow, why leave certain observations out of your judgement to “use evidence efficiently”?
My point was that it doesn’t make sense. Even when trying to use evidence efficiently you should use all evidence (barring the considerations from Frugality and working from finite data, which are only relevant due to certain biases)
In a certain sense rationality is using evidence efficiently. Perhaps overemphasis on that type of rationality tempts one to be sparing with evidence—after all if you use less evidence to reach your conclusion you used whatever evidence you did use more efficiently! But not using evidence doesn’t mean there is more evidence left afterwards, not using free or very cheap evidence is wasteful, so proper rationality, even in that sense, means using all easily available evidence when practical.
I’m not sure I follow, why leave certain observations out of your judgement to “use evidence efficiently”? Do you mean to use your resources efficiently, like time and brain power? In that case, you can just define it as using resources as efficiently as possible. You need evidence to gain knowledge, you need knowledge to base theories, and you need theories to decide how to most effectively spend your resources, which can be spent on anything including finding more evidence in the first place.
My point was that it doesn’t make sense. Even when trying to use evidence efficiently you should use all evidence (barring the considerations from Frugality and working from finite data, which are only relevant due to certain biases)