Re:Checklist of Rationality Habits
by JadeNB on Saturday January 03, 2015 @12:10PM
(#8831240)
> Read the list...
I did (although, as I noted, I think that part of being rational is critically creating your own criteria for rationality, rather than using someone else's). I also was not claiming that this was not on the list—but:
> I notice when my mind is arguing for a side (instead of evaluating which side to choose), and flag this as an error mode.
Although logically—well, in classical logic, anyway—every argument against something is an argument for its opposite, I think that there is nonetheless a meaningful difference between making a contrarian argument (as I do; it is an essentially negative process) and arguing for the opposite position (an essentially positive process).
I did (although, as I noted, I think that part of being rational is critically creating your own criteria for rationality, rather than using someone else's). I also was not claiming that this was not on the list—but:
> I notice when my mind is arguing for a side (instead of evaluating which side to choose), and flag this as an error mode.
Although logically—well, in classical logic, anyway—every argument against something is an argument for its opposite, I think that there is nonetheless a meaningful difference between making a contrarian argument (as I do; it is an essentially negative process) and arguing for the opposite position (an essentially positive process).