It is interesting to contrast the negative reactions to this suggestion (which I instinctively share) to academic philosophy. It is normal to talk about Cartesians, Kantians or Hegelians without any connotations of cultism. Even for contemporary philosophy, someone who agrees with Dennett on consciousness or with Derrida on deconstructionism would be, I think, happy to call herself a Dennettian or a Derridean. Why, then, do we react against being called Yudkowskians?
The difference seems to be that the philosophical labels do not imply acceptance of a whole worldview. Context or explicit distinction usually makes clear that one is e.g. “a Dennettian about intentionality” or “a Kantian about morality”, not someone who accepts everything or even most that Dennett or Kant said. The Sequences, on the other hand, present something close to a whole worldview, which most people here share in a great measure, so calling ourselves Yudkowskians without qualification brings up the suggestion that we slavishly follow the wordlview someone else has put forward—something much more cult-like. I think the same happens for “Randian/Objectivist”; compare the connotations of “I am an Objectivist” with those of “I am a Randian on objective value”.
It is interesting to contrast the negative reactions to this suggestion (which I instinctively share) to academic philosophy. It is normal to talk about Cartesians, Kantians or Hegelians without any connotations of cultism. Even for contemporary philosophy, someone who agrees with Dennett on consciousness or with Derrida on deconstructionism would be, I think, happy to call herself a Dennettian or a Derridean. Why, then, do we react against being called Yudkowskians?
The difference seems to be that the philosophical labels do not imply acceptance of a whole worldview. Context or explicit distinction usually makes clear that one is e.g. “a Dennettian about intentionality” or “a Kantian about morality”, not someone who accepts everything or even most that Dennett or Kant said. The Sequences, on the other hand, present something close to a whole worldview, which most people here share in a great measure, so calling ourselves Yudkowskians without qualification brings up the suggestion that we slavishly follow the wordlview someone else has put forward—something much more cult-like. I think the same happens for “Randian/Objectivist”; compare the connotations of “I am an Objectivist” with those of “I am a Randian on objective value”.