In many ways learning comes down to motivation. Especially with regards to something like rationality. For instance if a person possess beliefs which are ‘sacred cows’ rationality will be very threatening to them. They will not possess the level of motivation required to overcome biases. Trying to teach an individual critical thinking in these circumstances will be necessarily limited until they become motivated to confront those dogmatic and unsupported beliefs. If your goal is to raise the sanity waterline then eliminating the fears that sustain irrationality is most likely a very crucial part of such a project.
Limited, certainly. Does that negate all the benefit of trying?
Just getting the information out there is important. Compartmentalizations can be broken down in time, and it can be helped along greatly by already having the tools to do so at hand when one DOES get around to questioning. Motivation need not even factor into it—The educational waterline is still higher overall whether or not high school students themselves are particularly motivated to learn the material required. Statistically, at least A FEW of the students are going to wind up learning and remembering it.
You may find it worthwhile to consider that raising the sanity waterline is not about eliminating individual islands of irrationality at all. Those fights are already being fought. But even as we win some of those battles, the war rages on—merely with new and different players. Until you start to dealing with the roots of irrationality rather than the effects, it’ll just keep popping up in the latest conspiracy theory/religion/diet fad/etc. Raising the sanity waterline is the instrument by which we’re eliminating sacred cows, not the other way around.
EDIT: Of course, this is all assuming Rationality is teachable. Which I’m fairly certain it is, just not very effectively over an internet medium. I see rationality as the sort of thing that is best learned in small teams with a LOT of direct practice exercises. (The latter really necessitates the former. It would be quite ridiculous to NOT capitalize on our social natures to motivate and reinforce principles. The dark side certainly doesn’t fail to.) A lot of rationality skills are, in effect, trying to retrain or refine natural impulses. That kind of change doesn’t happen overnight, sleeping on what you read from a blog post.
Good points. I hadn’t really considered the issue of compartmentalization. And it makes perfect sense that an individual can learn critical thinking to be applied in numerous areas of life, while neglecting this capacity in area where say fear or dogma prohibits its use elsewhere. And upon considering it, this was certainly the case in my life. I began to question authority and think for myself with regards to say government first, then later when my religious structure began to disappoint, I started to implement, for instance textual criticism and rejection of authority. And I do agree that .rationality can be taught.
Raising the sanity waterline is the instrument by which we’re eliminating sacred cows, not the other way around.
You are onto a really good point there. Thanks for the redirection.
In many ways learning comes down to motivation. Especially with regards to something like rationality. For instance if a person possess beliefs which are ‘sacred cows’ rationality will be very threatening to them. They will not possess the level of motivation required to overcome biases. Trying to teach an individual critical thinking in these circumstances will be necessarily limited until they become motivated to confront those dogmatic and unsupported beliefs. If your goal is to raise the sanity waterline then eliminating the fears that sustain irrationality is most likely a very crucial part of such a project.
Limited, certainly. Does that negate all the benefit of trying?
Just getting the information out there is important. Compartmentalizations can be broken down in time, and it can be helped along greatly by already having the tools to do so at hand when one DOES get around to questioning. Motivation need not even factor into it—The educational waterline is still higher overall whether or not high school students themselves are particularly motivated to learn the material required. Statistically, at least A FEW of the students are going to wind up learning and remembering it.
You may find it worthwhile to consider that raising the sanity waterline is not about eliminating individual islands of irrationality at all. Those fights are already being fought. But even as we win some of those battles, the war rages on—merely with new and different players. Until you start to dealing with the roots of irrationality rather than the effects, it’ll just keep popping up in the latest conspiracy theory/religion/diet fad/etc. Raising the sanity waterline is the instrument by which we’re eliminating sacred cows, not the other way around.
EDIT: Of course, this is all assuming Rationality is teachable. Which I’m fairly certain it is, just not very effectively over an internet medium. I see rationality as the sort of thing that is best learned in small teams with a LOT of direct practice exercises. (The latter really necessitates the former. It would be quite ridiculous to NOT capitalize on our social natures to motivate and reinforce principles. The dark side certainly doesn’t fail to.) A lot of rationality skills are, in effect, trying to retrain or refine natural impulses. That kind of change doesn’t happen overnight, sleeping on what you read from a blog post.
Good points. I hadn’t really considered the issue of compartmentalization. And it makes perfect sense that an individual can learn critical thinking to be applied in numerous areas of life, while neglecting this capacity in area where say fear or dogma prohibits its use elsewhere. And upon considering it, this was certainly the case in my life. I began to question authority and think for myself with regards to say government first, then later when my religious structure began to disappoint, I started to implement, for instance textual criticism and rejection of authority. And I do agree that .rationality can be taught.
You are onto a really good point there. Thanks for the redirection.