I think you’re right, when the issue at hand is agreed on by both parties to be purely a “matter of fact.”
As soon as social or political implications crop in, that’s no longer a guarantee.
But we often pretend like our social/political values are matters of fact. The offense arises when we use rational concepts in a way that gives the lie to that pretense. Finding an indirect and inoffensive way to present the materials and let them deconstruct their pretenses is what I’m wishing for here. LW has a strong culture surrounding how these general-purpose tools get applied, so I’d like to see a presentation of the “pure theory” that’s done in an engaging way not obviously entangled with this blog.
The alternative is to use rationality to try and become savvier social operators. This can be “instrumental rationality” or it can be “dark arts,” depending on how we carry it out. I’m all for instrumental rationality, but I suspect that spreading rational thought further will require that other cultural groups appropriate the tools to refine their own viewpoints rather than us going out and doing the convincing ourselves.
I think you’re right, when the issue at hand is agreed on by both parties to be purely a “matter of fact.”
As soon as social or political implications crop in, that’s no longer a guarantee.
But we often pretend like our social/political values are matters of fact. The offense arises when we use rational concepts in a way that gives the lie to that pretense. Finding an indirect and inoffensive way to present the materials and let them deconstruct their pretenses is what I’m wishing for here. LW has a strong culture surrounding how these general-purpose tools get applied, so I’d like to see a presentation of the “pure theory” that’s done in an engaging way not obviously entangled with this blog.
The alternative is to use rationality to try and become savvier social operators. This can be “instrumental rationality” or it can be “dark arts,” depending on how we carry it out. I’m all for instrumental rationality, but I suspect that spreading rational thought further will require that other cultural groups appropriate the tools to refine their own viewpoints rather than us going out and doing the convincing ourselves.