You're wrong in your history there. Kahnemans book came out long after the online rationality group was built.

Ooh, you're right. I thought it came out closer to the actual date of his research.

I don't understand. Rationalism in the philosophy world goes back to Descartes. I think that's when it was an explicit school of thought, perhaps a hundred years later at the most. I also rather like the philosophy distinction between rationalism and empricism (strangely enough, the online 'rationalists' seem to be empiricists) since it's a division between traditions with differing but obviously valuable approaches to how people know things - rather than one side simply taking the name to claim some kind of high ground. The name actually illustrates something distinctive about each group's thought.

The contemporary "rationalists" don't ascribe to philosophical rationalism.

2 hour discussion between Daniel Kahneman and Sam Harris, well worth a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKLE3TmtFhY