Well I’d reprise my objection to stealing the names of obscure-among-the-general-population theories of epistemology. And if you don’t care about that objection then I think rationalist has the edge over evidentialist. It’s also awkward sounding and I’m not sure it captures the feel of what we’re doing. Our concern hasn’t been with the evidence so much as how the evidence is processed.
I find both terms a bit awkward, neither completely satisfactory in a denotative sense (they don’t hold a candle to “Bayesian” in that regard). I think rationalist comes off as a bit more hubristic. Naming ourselves does draw artificial lines, implying that we’re “more of that” than others. So when we call ourselves rationalists, we imply that the other party is irrational. When we call ourselves evidentialists, we imply that the other party isn’t paying enough attention to evidence. The latter seems less immediately offensive, and I would expect a less defensive reaction in turn.
Well I’d reprise my objection to stealing the names of obscure-among-the-general-population theories of epistemology. And if you don’t care about that objection then I think rationalist has the edge over evidentialist. It’s also awkward sounding and I’m not sure it captures the feel of what we’re doing. Our concern hasn’t been with the evidence so much as how the evidence is processed.
I find both terms a bit awkward, neither completely satisfactory in a denotative sense (they don’t hold a candle to “Bayesian” in that regard). I think rationalist comes off as a bit more hubristic. Naming ourselves does draw artificial lines, implying that we’re “more of that” than others. So when we call ourselves rationalists, we imply that the other party is irrational. When we call ourselves evidentialists, we imply that the other party isn’t paying enough attention to evidence. The latter seems less immediately offensive, and I would expect a less defensive reaction in turn.