I have mixed feelings about that. One big difference in style between the sciences and the humanities lies in the complete lack of respect for tradition in the sciences. The humanities deal in annotations and critical comparisons of received texts. The sciences deal with efficient pedagogy.
I think that the sequences are good in that they try to cover this philosophical material in the great-idea oriented style of the sciences rather than the great-thinker oriented style of the humanities. My only complaint about the sequences is that in some places the pedagogy is not really great—some technical ideas are not explained as clearly as they might be, some of the straw men are a little too easy to knock down, and in a few places Eliezer may have even reached the wrong conclusions.
So, rather than annotating The Sequences (in the tradition of the humanities), it might be better to re-present the material covered by the sequences (in the tradition of the sciences). Or, produce a mixed-mode presentation which (like Eliezer’s) focuses on getting the ideas across, but adds some scholarship (unlike Eliezer) in that it provides the standard Googleable names to the ideas discussed—both the good ideas and the bad ones.
I have mixed feelings about that. One big difference in style between the sciences and the humanities lies in the complete lack of respect for tradition in the sciences. The humanities deal in annotations and critical comparisons of received texts. The sciences deal with efficient pedagogy.
I think that the sequences are good in that they try to cover this philosophical material in the great-idea oriented style of the sciences rather than the great-thinker oriented style of the humanities. My only complaint about the sequences is that in some places the pedagogy is not really great—some technical ideas are not explained as clearly as they might be, some of the straw men are a little too easy to knock down, and in a few places Eliezer may have even reached the wrong conclusions.
So, rather than annotating The Sequences (in the tradition of the humanities), it might be better to re-present the material covered by the sequences (in the tradition of the sciences). Or, produce a mixed-mode presentation which (like Eliezer’s) focuses on getting the ideas across, but adds some scholarship (unlike Eliezer) in that it provides the standard Googleable names to the ideas discussed—both the good ideas and the bad ones.
I like this idea.