In particular, I think this makes it a bit clearer on what he means by religio if it’s explicitly contrasted with credo; differences in credo are primarily about different propositions that are asserted (i.e. you can tell what religion a person is by how they answer a multiple choice test), and differences in religio are more about different ‘actions that are taken’ in some broader way (i.e. you can tell what religion a person is by how they live their life).
In my understanding of Vervaeke’s view, religions that used to be useful as worldviews and communities of practice for legitimating and encouraging individual growth fell apart (both in the sense that they are no longer seen as legitimate, and also I think because they are no longer doing the best at encouraging growth / anagoge). The first ‘pseudoreligions’ to form were the products of the overall historical trend towards systems and propositions: as Europe dispensed with the religio and kept the credo, we got a version of Christianity that dispensed with prayer and agape and kept around the doctrinal creeds and the crusades, to much suffering and regret.
So the thing that we need to do is restore the parts of religion focused on growth and improvement—not just individually, but also collectively. To the extent there are propositional beliefs, they are about facilitating the anagogic process rather than the ultimate end point.
Of course, a lot of this is how I think about rationality and Less Wrong and the associated community. Just like it might not make much sense to talk about ‘bodybuilding enthusiasts’ who don’t build their bodies, it doesn’t make much sense to talk about ‘aspiring rationalists’ who don’t develop their habit of mind. There’s a surrounding worldview that ascribes special importance to this—it’s not just a hobby, and is much more like a ‘way of life’.
At CFAR workshops, one of the tips that we would often give people at the beginning was “we’re going to teach you techniques, but the workshop isn’t really about these specific skills; it’s about the skill of developing techniques, of which these are examples,” in a way that lines up exactly with Vervaeke’s “meta-psychotechnology for the creating the ecology of psychotechnology.”
So things are starting to come together.
In particular, I think this makes it a bit clearer on what he means by religio if it’s explicitly contrasted with credo; differences in credo are primarily about different propositions that are asserted (i.e. you can tell what religion a person is by how they answer a multiple choice test), and differences in religio are more about different ‘actions that are taken’ in some broader way (i.e. you can tell what religion a person is by how they live their life).
In my understanding of Vervaeke’s view, religions that used to be useful as worldviews and communities of practice for legitimating and encouraging individual growth fell apart (both in the sense that they are no longer seen as legitimate, and also I think because they are no longer doing the best at encouraging growth / anagoge). The first ‘pseudoreligions’ to form were the products of the overall historical trend towards systems and propositions: as Europe dispensed with the religio and kept the credo, we got a version of Christianity that dispensed with prayer and agape and kept around the doctrinal creeds and the crusades, to much suffering and regret.
So the thing that we need to do is restore the parts of religion focused on growth and improvement—not just individually, but also collectively. To the extent there are propositional beliefs, they are about facilitating the anagogic process rather than the ultimate end point.
Of course, a lot of this is how I think about rationality and Less Wrong and the associated community. Just like it might not make much sense to talk about ‘bodybuilding enthusiasts’ who don’t build their bodies, it doesn’t make much sense to talk about ‘aspiring rationalists’ who don’t develop their habit of mind. There’s a surrounding worldview that ascribes special importance to this—it’s not just a hobby, and is much more like a ‘way of life’.
At CFAR workshops, one of the tips that we would often give people at the beginning was “we’re going to teach you techniques, but the workshop isn’t really about these specific skills; it’s about the skill of developing techniques, of which these are examples,” in a way that lines up exactly with Vervaeke’s “meta-psychotechnology for the creating the ecology of psychotechnology.”