If you contextualise the outmoded ideas as part of the Great Conversation [1], and the story of how we reached our current understanding, rather than objective statements of fact, then they becomes a lot more valuable and worthy of study.
But isn't the content of LessWrong part of the Great Conversation too?
Re:Guess I'm a Rationalist Now
by jay_kyburz on Thursday June 19, 2025 @05:55PM
(#44322877)
I have kids in high school. We sometimes talk about the difference between the black and white of math or science, and the wishy washy grey of the humanities.
You can be right or wrong in math. You have can an opinion in English.
Re:Guess I'm a Rationalist Now
by HDThoreaun on Thursday June 19, 2025 @09:18PM
(#44323944)
You can definitely have wrong opinions in the humanities.
You can be right or wrong in math and philosophy. You have can an opinion in any other sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, medical sciences, history, you name it.
Re:Guess I'm a Rationalist Now
by greener_grass on Friday June 20, 2025 @06:20AM
(#44326304)
I suggest teaching them about the Problem of Induction [1].
Scientific thinking is not the same as mathematical thinking and it becomes quite wishy washy grey if you zoom in too far!
They're rederiving all this stuff not out of obstinacy, but because they prefer it. I don't really identify with rationalism per se, but I'm with them on this--the humanities are over-cooked and a humanity education tends to be a tedious slog through outmoded ideas divorced from reality