Hm. I don't think it's wrong to say that rationalist ideology gives smart people a way to paper over obvious-to-an-outsider moral concerns with their political project, but is that really a unique feature of rationalism? Or is that just a description of *every* political ideology? The 20th century, far as I can tell, was a series of clashes between competing excuses (nationalism, communism, fascism, domino theory) for mass murder; the Zizians' ideology eventually landing on "and thus we need to kill some people" is the least weird thing about them.
Interesting survey, but I think 'it's impossible to get rid of cognitive biases' is the wrong conclusion, because that's the same old original-sin, or witch-hunting, idea which motivated all this in the first place. Humans may believe a lot of silly things, but their reasoning is pretty sound on many other things, and they have the ability to improve it - not through struggle sessions or enumeration of 'biases,' but through humility, care, and learning.
This reads like a very confused attempt to vaguely link some very different things together in an attempt to prove the thesis that ‘rationalism is bad’.
Yeah, this piece is definitely conflating a lot of groups that hate each other under a too-large umbrella labeled "NEEEEEERD!" (Obvious example: effective altruists have been some of the loudest critics of DOGE, particularly on the subject of PEPFAR.)
Very good piece. The book sounds really interesting and I see there's a copy on archive.org that you can read, but other than that you have to pay around $400 for a used copy or wait until November for it to be re-released.
About the topic: rationalism pursued to its endpoint always becomes irrational, a point Justin Smith Ruiu made a few years back in his book "Irrationality." This is one thing the rationalists don't seem to realize; another is that the entire idea of "rationalism" is culturally and historically determined, and it must be mediated through language. The rationalists' faith in science, objectivity, and reason (and it is faith) is their very undoing. I'm not saying reason is "bad," to be clear, but blind faith in reason surely is.
Hm. I don't think it's wrong to say that rationalist ideology gives smart people a way to paper over obvious-to-an-outsider moral concerns with their political project, but is that really a unique feature of rationalism? Or is that just a description of *every* political ideology? The 20th century, far as I can tell, was a series of clashes between competing excuses (nationalism, communism, fascism, domino theory) for mass murder; the Zizians' ideology eventually landing on "and thus we need to kill some people" is the least weird thing about them.
Interesting survey, but I think 'it's impossible to get rid of cognitive biases' is the wrong conclusion, because that's the same old original-sin, or witch-hunting, idea which motivated all this in the first place. Humans may believe a lot of silly things, but their reasoning is pretty sound on many other things, and they have the ability to improve it - not through struggle sessions or enumeration of 'biases,' but through humility, care, and learning.
the left invented "hate speech" and so we said that there can be hate speech against Jews, and when you rejected that you proved you're antisemitic
This reads like a very confused attempt to vaguely link some very different things together in an attempt to prove the thesis that ‘rationalism is bad’.
Yeah, this piece is definitely conflating a lot of groups that hate each other under a too-large umbrella labeled "NEEEEEERD!" (Obvious example: effective altruists have been some of the loudest critics of DOGE, particularly on the subject of PEPFAR.)
Very good piece. The book sounds really interesting and I see there's a copy on archive.org that you can read, but other than that you have to pay around $400 for a used copy or wait until November for it to be re-released.
About the topic: rationalism pursued to its endpoint always becomes irrational, a point Justin Smith Ruiu made a few years back in his book "Irrationality." This is one thing the rationalists don't seem to realize; another is that the entire idea of "rationalism" is culturally and historically determined, and it must be mediated through language. The rationalists' faith in science, objectivity, and reason (and it is faith) is their very undoing. I'm not saying reason is "bad," to be clear, but blind faith in reason surely is.