My favorite self-conscious ideology is Continental Rationalism. The main idea is that the world is built on logic and harmony which can be understood by an individual human mind. It was born from religious mysticism (Descartes, Leibniz) but somehow became very fruitful in science. Competing ideologies like “the world is built on chance” or “all understanding is social” don’t bear nearly as much fruit, though they sound more sophisticated. Maybe it’s because they discourage you from trying to understand things by reason, while CR encourages it. Heck, I think even LW ideology loses out to CR, because self-improvement feels like a grind, while understanding the world feels like a quest. Maybe if LW focused for a while on understanding things instead of defeating akrasia and such, it’d be a happier place.
The main idea is that the world is built on logic and harmony which can be understood by an individual human mind. It was born from religious mysticism (Descartes, Leibniz)
Erm, Pythagoras was around a lot earlier than the likes of Descartes or Leibniz. Even the competing ideas that “the world is built on chance” or else that “all understanding is social” (or, to put it another way, “man is the measure of all things”) are of comparable antiquity and not really more ‘sophisticated’ in any relevant way—except perhaps in an overly literal sense, being more conducive to “sophistry”!
My favorite self-conscious ideology is Continental Rationalism. The main idea is that the world is built on logic and harmony which can be understood by an individual human mind. It was born from religious mysticism (Descartes, Leibniz) but somehow became very fruitful in science. Competing ideologies like “the world is built on chance” or “all understanding is social” don’t bear nearly as much fruit, though they sound more sophisticated. Maybe it’s because they discourage you from trying to understand things by reason, while CR encourages it. Heck, I think even LW ideology loses out to CR, because self-improvement feels like a grind, while understanding the world feels like a quest. Maybe if LW focused for a while on understanding things instead of defeating akrasia and such, it’d be a happier place.
Completely agree. (Username is not by chance.)
Can you add any more detail of what precisely Continental Rationalism is? Or, even better, if you have time it’s probably writing up a post on this.
Erm, Pythagoras was around a lot earlier than the likes of Descartes or Leibniz. Even the competing ideas that “the world is built on chance” or else that “all understanding is social” (or, to put it another way, “man is the measure of all things”) are of comparable antiquity and not really more ‘sophisticated’ in any relevant way—except perhaps in an overly literal sense, being more conducive to “sophistry”!