I must confess that I had never heard of superrationality before, but I am familiar with Kant’s moral philosophy and as the article points out, superrationality seems to be another word for the idea behind Kant’s Categorical Imperative. I did a quick search in the literature and it seems that no Kantian philosopher is familiar with the term superrationality.
I want to very briefly explain what, according to Kant superrationality is and why we are superrational, but first just a quick note on the term itself. It seems to indicate a superior form of rationality — more rational than mere rationality. Kant would disagree and argue that it is more complicated than that. Kant’s term for superrationality is insted ”autonomy of the will”.
What superrationality IS according to Kant:
Practical rationality is the philosophical term for rationality of action. To act rationally is, in the most general sense to do what you regard as good. If you regard an action as good because of a feeling (you eat because you are hungry) the action is merely subjectively good.
But now assume that reason itself can determine what is good, independently of any feeling. In other words assume that the will (practical reason) can be autonomous. Then such an action would be objectively good, recognized as good by any rational being (because reason is universal). We already have a word for such objective goodness, according to Kant and that is ”moral goodness”. Superrationality or the autonomy of the will is thus the same thing as moral goodness.
Why we ARE superrational according to Kant:
In order to act you must have a goal. If the goal is to accomodate a feeling it is merely subjective, but if reason alone can have a goal then it would be objective, the goal of every rational being. Kant’s conjecture is that the goal of pure practical reason is itself, its own autonomy to act independently of any feeling. Since this is an objective goal it applies to practical reason as such, not just my own reason but the reason of every rational being. My goal as a rational being is the autonomy of reason as such.
Philosophical inplications::
It is a little bit spooky if it can be demonstrated that AI:s exhibit superrationality or autonomy of the will, because it could indicate that the AI actually has a will and sees its own will and that of every other rational being as an objective end in itself.
Secondly, and more comforting, it could indicate that morality is an emergent property of rational AI:s. It could mean that the more poweful AI:s become the more morally good they will be.
In any case I think that these results warrant further study.
Fascinating study!
I must confess that I had never heard of superrationality before, but I am familiar with Kant’s moral philosophy and as the article points out, superrationality seems to be another word for the idea behind Kant’s Categorical Imperative. I did a quick search in the literature and it seems that no Kantian philosopher is familiar with the term superrationality.
I want to very briefly explain what, according to Kant superrationality is and why we are superrational, but first just a quick note on the term itself. It seems to indicate a superior form of rationality — more rational than mere rationality. Kant would disagree and argue that it is more complicated than that. Kant’s term for superrationality is insted ”autonomy of the will”.
What superrationality IS according to Kant:
Practical rationality is the philosophical term for rationality of action. To act rationally is, in the most general sense to do what you regard as good. If you regard an action as good because of a feeling (you eat because you are hungry) the action is merely subjectively good.
But now assume that reason itself can determine what is good, independently of any feeling. In other words assume that the will (practical reason) can be autonomous. Then such an action would be objectively good, recognized as good by any rational being (because reason is universal). We already have a word for such objective goodness, according to Kant and that is ”moral goodness”. Superrationality or the autonomy of the will is thus the same thing as moral goodness.
Why we ARE superrational according to Kant:
In order to act you must have a goal. If the goal is to accomodate a feeling it is merely subjective, but if reason alone can have a goal then it would be objective, the goal of every rational being. Kant’s conjecture is that the goal of pure practical reason is itself, its own autonomy to act independently of any feeling. Since this is an objective goal it applies to practical reason as such, not just my own reason but the reason of every rational being. My goal as a rational being is the autonomy of reason as such.
Philosophical inplications::
It is a little bit spooky if it can be demonstrated that AI:s exhibit superrationality or autonomy of the will, because it could indicate that the AI actually has a will and sees its own will and that of every other rational being as an objective end in itself.
Secondly, and more comforting, it could indicate that morality is an emergent property of rational AI:s. It could mean that the more poweful AI:s become the more morally good they will be.
In any case I think that these results warrant further study.