The distinction between instrumental and epistemic rationality is dramatic enough that I wonder if we should really be using the same word for both.
ETA: Just as I was posting this I came up with a response: The two variants might be well described as seeking correct knowledge and correct action respectively, with the common factor being correctness. So maybe using the same word plus a modifier does make sense.
ETA2: As army1987 points out below, I’ve just exhibited the same conflation I was concerned about. Embarrassing, but consider it evidence for my original point.
Point. I wonder how I managed to notice the conflation of meanings for the word “rational” but not the word “correct.” That’s irritating. I was closer to being right before the edit.
Nitpick: I wouldn’t say the latter means “good” precisely, but your point still stands.
There are so many words in English (but also in Italian, for that matter) that can be interpreted either normatively or descriptively (e.g. “should” can mean either ‘is most likely to’ or ‘had better’, also “right”, etc.) that being unambiguous between the two is more exceptional than being ambiguous.
I guess the reason for that is that, for social norms, the two coincide, i.e. the side of the road on which someone in a given country had better drive is the one on which someone in that country are most likely to drive, the past tense of a verb one had better use in a given language in a given register is the one speakers of that language in that register are most likely to use, the attire you had better wear on a job interview is the one people usually wear on job interviews, etc.
I think this is an interesting point. To be honest, I think whether we should be using the term “rationality” at all is very much an open question. Just as MIRI changed its name thanks to unwanted associations with other things using the term “singularity,” we might be better served by avoiding the term “rationality” and coming up with something else.
we might be better served by avoiding the term “rationality” and coming up with something else.
My friends label me as “rational” (or alternatively, “hyper-rational”) when talking about my stereotypically Spock-like characteristics. I’m all in favor of splitting up the overload on the word.
If we invent a new word, and the word will become famous enough, sooner or later Hollywood will make a movie using this word to describe a protagonist who does not completely satisfy the definition and also has many unrelated weird traits, and then we are back at the beginning.
The distinction between instrumental and epistemic rationality is dramatic enough that I wonder if we should really be using the same word for both.
ETA: Just as I was posting this I came up with a response: The two variants might be well described as seeking correct knowledge and correct action respectively, with the common factor being correctness. So maybe using the same word plus a modifier does make sense.
ETA2: As army1987 points out below, I’ve just exhibited the same conflation I was concerned about. Embarrassing, but consider it evidence for my original point.
The former instance of “correct” means ‘true’, the latter means ‘good’. Still not the same thing.
Point. I wonder how I managed to notice the conflation of meanings for the word “rational” but not the word “correct.” That’s irritating. I was closer to being right before the edit.
Nitpick: I wouldn’t say the latter means “good” precisely, but your point still stands.
There are so many words in English (but also in Italian, for that matter) that can be interpreted either normatively or descriptively (e.g. “should” can mean either ‘is most likely to’ or ‘had better’, also “right”, etc.) that being unambiguous between the two is more exceptional than being ambiguous.
I guess the reason for that is that, for social norms, the two coincide, i.e. the side of the road on which someone in a given country had better drive is the one on which someone in that country are most likely to drive, the past tense of a verb one had better use in a given language in a given register is the one speakers of that language in that register are most likely to use, the attire you had better wear on a job interview is the one people usually wear on job interviews, etc.
I think this is an interesting point. To be honest, I think whether we should be using the term “rationality” at all is very much an open question. Just as MIRI changed its name thanks to unwanted associations with other things using the term “singularity,” we might be better served by avoiding the term “rationality” and coming up with something else.
My friends label me as “rational” (or alternatively, “hyper-rational”) when talking about my stereotypically Spock-like characteristics. I’m all in favor of splitting up the overload on the word.
If we invent a new word, and the word will become famous enough, sooner or later Hollywood will make a movie using this word to describe a protagonist who does not completely satisfy the definition and also has many unrelated weird traits, and then we are back at the beginning.