Twelve Virtues of Rationality

[ciphergoth]

Twelve Virtues of Rationality

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, 2006

The first virtue is curiosity. A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance. 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. The glory of glorious mystery is to be solved, after which it ceases to be mystery. Be wary of those who speak of being open-minded and modestly confess their ignorance. There is a time to confess your ignorance and a time to relinquish your ignorance.

Read on...

I've been absolutely captivated by Yudkowsky's writing on rationality for ages now; it's given me a lot of new tools with which to think about and talk about the world, and shaken me out of a lot of comfortable assumptions about my own rationality. I'd love to know what people who read here think about it.

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

What are the bits you most disagree with?

[ex-pipistre.livejournal.com]

I disagree with the bits about total honesty in arguments- to be able to actually apply that depends very much on the context of the argument, and there are many where it's not appropriate. But again I'm probably placing this into the context of education. And it's something I'd keep in the back of my mind, so disagree is perhaps too strong, but I don't wholly agree.

I also find personally that if I start out seeking perfection, I end up being unable to start whatever it is I'd set out to do. Once I've got past the novice stage, I'm able to set higher and higher standards. But there needs to be some sort of satisfaction there, albeit without complacency.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

depends very much on the context of the argument

Could you give an example?

if I start out seeking perfection, I end up being unable to start whatever it is I'd set out to do

I think he's referring to a very specific kind of perfectionism to do with not tolerating your own errors of thought. Obviously uncertainty and approximation are to some extent unavoidable facts of life.