[SEQ RERUN] Zen and the Art of Rationality

[MinibearRex]

Today’s post, Zen and the Art of Rationality was originally published on 24 December 2007. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):

Rationality is very different in its propositional statements from Eastern religions, like Taoism or Buddhism. But, it is sometimes easier to express ideas in rationality using the language of Zen or the Tao.

Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).

This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we’ll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky’s old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Effortless Technique, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.

Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day’s sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.

[DanielLC]

The fifth-century Chinese philosopher Xiaoguang Li … Incidentally, does it change your opinion if I tell you that Xiaoguang “Mike” Li is actually a friend of mine who lives in the Bay Area?

Either you have a very old friend, or you’re referring to this is as the fifth century. Is it the fifth century from anything in particular?

[shokwave]

Or the application of fifth-century was erroneous, possibly intentionally erroneous.