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A rational thinking community? What a wonder! I need to investigate that stuff and take part in some discussions. Thanks for that site, friend!

• dvanduzer 14y ago
  If you're so inclined, I also highly recommend Eliezer's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (hpmor.com).
  • loeg 14y ago
    HPMOR can tend more towards fiction and less of this rationality stuff, but that's why it is a fun read.
• kirse 14y ago
  A rational thinking community On what basis did you establish this as fact? Did you read everything on the site and determine this to be true based on exhaustive "rational" analysis, or did you simply assume it to be true based on a few hunches without doing any sort of deep inquiry and "rational" investigation? It's quite easy to believe others are "rational" (and right) when you assume them to be "rational" (and right) from the very beginning.
  • Symmetry 14y ago
    I think most people would parse "rational thinking community" as a community interested in rational thinking, similarly to how you'd parse Python community as a community interested in Python rather than one that was implemented in Python. English is generally very prone to ambiguity, and if there's a valid interpretation of what someone said that makes sense it's usually best to assume that's what they meant unless further evidence indicates otherwise.
    • kirse 14y ago
      I think most people would parse "rational thinking community" as a community interested in rational thinking You are right, it would have been wiser to apply grace and ask to clarify why he was in such wonderment at the existence of a "rational thinking community". However, my concern was merely that the phrase "rational thinking" carries with it all sorts of implicit assumptions about the "rightness" or "wrongness" of what is being discussed, and it's important that when joining in a presupposed community of "rational thinkers" that this does not carry the assumption of "well, these people claim to be rational thinkers, therefore they are holders of the truth" The context of his surprise at the existence of a "rational thinking community" gives us a hunch at this potentially incorrect presupposition, but we can't know.
      • Symmetry 14y ago
        It is indeed very dangerous to call one's self "rational" or "rational thinking', but I'd say that's exactly why they call themselves "less wrong."