LESSWRONG
LW

Personal Blog

-5

[ Question ]

Why is rhetoric taboo among rationalists?

by TOoHNA
16th Mar 2021
1 min read
A
2
6

-5

Personal Blog

-5

Why is rhetoric taboo among rationalists?
10Dagon
4ChristianKl
1AnthonyC
3ChristianKl
9ChristianKl
2Kaj_Sotala
New Answer
New Comment

2 Answers sorted by
top scoring

Dagon

Mar 14, 2021

100

Modifying someone else's type 1 systems is the sin.  Improving one's own (typically by identifying things with type 2 and reinforcing them to make them smoother in type 1) is mostly good.

Rhetoric is other-directed: how to "win" a debate.  There are elements of truth-seeking in there, especially if done with steelmanning and rigorous humility.  But that's rarely where it comes from, or goes.

Add Comment
[-]ChristianKl4y40

CFAR did a lot of work in helping people align their type 1 and type 2 which I wouldn't call sinful but is about modifying people's system 1. 

Reply
1AnthonyC4y
In that case I'm assuming CFAR is only applying these ideas to people who want to be so modified? That seems dramatically less problematic.
3ChristianKl4y
That's a part of it, but I think the fact that CFAR techniques focus on aligning system I and system II makes them different from attempts to change system I without caring about aligning with system II.

ChristianKl

Mar 16, 2021

90

We acknowledge that sometimes type1 solutions are better that type2 solutions and the only way to change type1 processes is with rhetoric. 

No, I don't acknowledge that the only way to change type1 processes is with rhetoric. There's a variety of verbal and non-verbal processes that can change type1 processes. When it comes to a process like Focusing that does mangage to change type1 processes that does have a verbal component calling it rhetoric still seems misleading.

Add Comment
Rendering 1/4 comments, sorted by
top scoring
(show more)
Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 1:12 PM
[-]Kaj_Sotala4y20

and the only way to change type1 processes is with rhetoric

Type 2 processes are implemented on top of Type 1 processes, so anything that affects Type 2 processes also affects Type 1 processes.

Reply
Moderation Log
More from TOoHNA
View more
Curated and popular this week
A
2
1

We acknowledge that sometimes type1 solutions are better that type2 solutions and the only way to change type1 processes is with rhetoric. But improving type1 systems is a cardinal sin.