The term post-rationalist was popularized by the diaspora map and not by people who see themselves as post-rationalists and wanted to distinguish themselves.
The post rats may not have popularised the term as well as Scott did, but I think that’s mostly just because Scott is way more popular than them.
To the extent that there’s a new person who has a similar founder position right now that’s Scott Alexander and not anybody who self-identifies as post-rationalist.
Well, the claim was about what the post rats were (consciously or not) trying to do, not about whether they were successful.
And I think Scott has rebranded the movement, in a relevant sense. There’s a lot of overlap, but SSC is its own thing, with its own spinoffs. E.g. I believe most SSC readers don’t identify as rationalists.
Will Newsome did you the term before, but I’m not aware of it being used to the extent that it’s worthwhile to speak of him as someone who planned on being seen as a founder. If that was his intention he would have written a lot more outside of IRC.
Here’s a 2012 comment (predating the map by two years) in which someone describes himself as a post-rationalist to distinguish himself from rationalists: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/p5jwZE6hTz92sSCcY/son-of-shit-rationalists-say#ryJabsxh7m9TPocqS
The post rats may not have popularised the term as well as Scott did, but I think that’s mostly just because Scott is way more popular than them.
Well, the claim was about what the post rats were (consciously or not) trying to do, not about whether they were successful.
And I think Scott has rebranded the movement, in a relevant sense. There’s a lot of overlap, but SSC is its own thing, with its own spinoffs. E.g. I believe most SSC readers don’t identify as rationalists.
(“Rebranding” might be better termed “forking”.)
Will Newsome did you the term before, but I’m not aware of it being used to the extent that it’s worthwhile to speak of him as someone who planned on being seen as a founder. If that was his intention he would have written a lot more outside of IRC.