Rationality

Epistemic rationality: systematically improving the accuracy of your beliefs.

Once you tell a lie, the truth is your enemy; and every truth connected to that truth, and every ally of truth in general; all of these you must oppose, to protect the lie. Whether you’re lying to others, or to yourself.

In a lot of ways, evolution is like unto theology. “Gods are ontologically distinct from creatures,” said Damien Broderick, “or they’re not worth the paper they’re written on.” And indeed, the Shaper of Life is not itself a creature. Evolution is bodiless, like the Judeo-Christian deity. Omnipresent in Nature, immanent in the fall of every leaf. Va

Saying “People who buy dangerous products deserve to get hurt!” is not tough-minded. It is a way of refusing to live in an unfair universe. Real tough-mindedness is saying, “Yes, sulfuric acid is a horrible painful death, and no, that mother of five children didn’t deserve it, but we’re going to keep the shops open anyway because we did this cost-b

Mystery is a property of questions, not answers.

To avoid professing doubts, remember: A rational doubt exists to destroy its target belief, and if it does not destroy its target it dies unfulfilled. A rational doubt arises from some specific reason the belief might be wrong. An unresolved doubt is a null-op. An uninvestigated doubt might as well not exist. You should not be proud of mere doubtin

The conjunction fallacy is when humans rate the probability P(A,B) higher than the probability P(B),

It’s like the old test of being asked to say the color of the letters in “blue.” It takes longer for subjects to name this color, because of the need to untangle the meaning of the letters and the color of the letters. You wouldn’t have similar trouble naming the color of the letters in “wind.” But a human brain, in addition to being an artifact hi

As it is written in Twelve Virtues: If in your heart you believe you already know, or if in your heart you do not wish to know, then your questioning will be purposeless and your skills without direction. Curiosity seeks to annihilate itself; there is no curiosity that does not want an answer.