IMO, the point of the QM sequence is “no, really, nowhere is safe; the call is coming from inside the house.” There’s a big difference between ‘rationalists’ who see irrationality as something to fight ‘out there’, and ‘rationalists’ who see irrationality as something to fight ‘in yourself’. Seeing irrationality in a field considered by many to be the peak of human intellect is a sobering observation.
But… you have to go through the details, and you have to be right. I don’t know that I would put it in my intro rationality book (for example, it’s not in Thinking and Deciding, which was my old go-to recommendation for a textbook on rationality).
Ok, but why does this matter?
IMO, the point of the QM sequence is “no, really, nowhere is safe; the call is coming from inside the house.” There’s a big difference between ‘rationalists’ who see irrationality as something to fight ‘out there’, and ‘rationalists’ who see irrationality as something to fight ‘in yourself’. Seeing irrationality in a field considered by many to be the peak of human intellect is a sobering observation.
But… you have to go through the details, and you have to be right. I don’t know that I would put it in my intro rationality book (for example, it’s not in Thinking and Deciding, which was my old go-to recommendation for a textbook on rationality).