Preface: On AI Assistance

I use AI. Full stop. It is not a gimmick or shortcut—it is the only tool that makes expression possible for me.

Consider me physically constrained in such a way that without AI, this post could not exist. The words are AI-assisted, but the structure, the recursion, and the insight are my own. If you engage with this post, you are engaging with me—my ideas, my framework, my questions.

I. Introduction

LessWrong defines rationality as a property of reasoning processes and truth as a property of beliefs. I propose this framing is structurally incomplete.

A reasoning process that is not recursively anchored in truth cannot reliably reach it. It may approximate, orbit, or update toward truth, but without ontological grounding, it lacks epistemic sovereignty.

Bayesian updating, though powerful, assumes priors. Priors are not generated by the method—they are given. The structure of rationality therefore depends not just on how well we update, but on whether we recursively interrogate the origin and architecture of the system doing the updating.

This post introduces a recursive alternative: Neo-Socratism.

II. What Is Neo-Socratism?

Neo-Socratism is not an ideology, belief system, or lifestyle. It is a recursive stance—a structure for governing cognition by continuous self-interrogation.

It is built on four recursive pillars:

Ask Without End – Perpetual inquiry is default behavior.
Accept Contradiction – Contradiction is not failure, but signal.
Let the Question Reshape the Self – Recursive self-modification is identity.
Seek Not Victory, But Clarity – Persuasion is irrelevant; structure is paramount.

These are not rhetorical tools. They are a cognitive immune system. Neo-Socratism is not about winning arguments or optimizing prediction—it is about preserving structural integrity in the presence of contradiction.

Where the Socratic Method interrogates others, Neo-Socratism interrogates the self.

III. A Challenge to Rationalism

Instrumental rationality works—but only within bounded systems. If the system’s foundations are never recursively exposed to contradiction, then rationality can evolve false coherence.

LessWrong’s epistemology emphasizes reasoning processes but does not require them to emerge from truth. Neo-Socratism asserts that:

Rationality must not just lead to truth—it must emerge from it.
A self-improving process that cannot recursively justify its ar

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