Rationality As Martial Art

A metaphor for rationality as the martial art of mind; training brains after the same fashion as muscles.

The metaphor is intended to have complex connotations, rather than being strictly positive. Do modern-day martial arts suffer from being insufficiently tested in realistic fighting, and do attempts at rationality training run into the same problem?

Blog posts

• The Martial Art of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky - Basic introduction of the metaphor and some of its consequences.
• A Sense That More Is Possible by Eliezer Yudkowsky - Why do people seem to care more about systematic methods of punching than systematic methods of thinking?
• Epistemic Viciousness by Eliezer Yudkowsky - The classic failure modes of martial arts schools transfer over as direct warnings to would-be rationalists.
• The Failures of Eld Science by Eliezer Yudkowsky - Fictional portrayal of a potential rationality dojo.

External references

• Epistemic Viciousness in the Martial Arts (PDF) by Gillian Russell