Introspection considered questionable, reflection considered absolutely mandatory.
Sometimes you can elicit the difference by first asking yourself why you believe/do something, then asking yourself how you came to believe/do something. “Why didn’t I upvote this article? Well because it doesn’t have qualities X, Y, Z and J. Oh, how did I come to not upvote this article? Well I never really actually considered that course of action, so it’s not like I ever had the option to, now that I think about it.” Notice the difference between moral justification/reasons and explanatory justification/reasons. Everything has reasons, but many reasons pretend to be the “true” reasons when they’re not. When you downvote a LW comment or post ask what caused you to downvote it and try to answer honestly, rather than introspecting on why you downvoted it. They can be the same question but it’s surprising how often they’re not. Likewise for all negative social judgments: ask the self-reflective question, How did I come to be so contemptuous of this person/idea/group?, not the other-focused Why is this person/idea/group so contemptible? It’s really important that you frame such questions the right way if you want your reflection to not accidentally spit out pleasant-sounding “introspection”. Doing this regularly makes rationalization or cloaked signalling look obvious, both from yourself and others, and serves as a basis for still further reflection.
It’s for this reason---(is it it? yes, I think it is)---that I find “What caused you to believe what you believe?” to be a much better fundamental question of rationality than the moral-justification-priming “Why do you believe what you believe?”. Same with “What caused you to work on what you’re working on?” rather than “Why are you working on what you’re working on?” (or variations thereof), at least on a timescale greater than months.
Anyway, all of this falls before the milestone that is Cached Selves, which used to be the second or third highest upvoted post on LW but has slipped since then. I can’t help but think some of Less Wrong’s purposes must’ve been lost—but maybe it’s just a matter of taste.
Introspection considered questionable, reflection considered absolutely mandatory.
To me “reflection” means just thinking about something you already know, and “introspection” adds the act of digging around in your mind for something you don’t yet know. But it’s happened to me before that the complex concepts in my head, tied to a given word, are different than the concepts that that word encodes for other people. Is this another of those times?
Introspection considered questionable, reflection considered absolutely mandatory.
Sometimes you can elicit the difference by first asking yourself why you believe/do something, then asking yourself how you came to believe/do something. “Why didn’t I upvote this article? Well because it doesn’t have qualities X, Y, Z and J. Oh, how did I come to not upvote this article? Well I never really actually considered that course of action, so it’s not like I ever had the option to, now that I think about it.” Notice the difference between moral justification/reasons and explanatory justification/reasons. Everything has reasons, but many reasons pretend to be the “true” reasons when they’re not. When you downvote a LW comment or post ask what caused you to downvote it and try to answer honestly, rather than introspecting on why you downvoted it. They can be the same question but it’s surprising how often they’re not. Likewise for all negative social judgments: ask the self-reflective question, How did I come to be so contemptuous of this person/idea/group?, not the other-focused Why is this person/idea/group so contemptible? It’s really important that you frame such questions the right way if you want your reflection to not accidentally spit out pleasant-sounding “introspection”. Doing this regularly makes rationalization or cloaked signalling look obvious, both from yourself and others, and serves as a basis for still further reflection.
It’s for this reason---(is it it? yes, I think it is)---that I find “What caused you to believe what you believe?” to be a much better fundamental question of rationality than the moral-justification-priming “Why do you believe what you believe?”. Same with “What caused you to work on what you’re working on?” rather than “Why are you working on what you’re working on?” (or variations thereof), at least on a timescale greater than months.
Anyway, all of this falls before the milestone that is Cached Selves, which used to be the second or third highest upvoted post on LW but has slipped since then. I can’t help but think some of Less Wrong’s purposes must’ve been lost—but maybe it’s just a matter of taste.
This reminds me of http://lesswrong.com/lw/vk/back_up_and_ask_whether_not_why/ but I prefer the phrasing “What caused you to X” over “Should I X” and it feels like an easier question to get into the habit of asking.
To me “reflection” means just thinking about something you already know, and “introspection” adds the act of digging around in your mind for something you don’t yet know. But it’s happened to me before that the complex concepts in my head, tied to a given word, are different than the concepts that that word encodes for other people. Is this another of those times?