I think most words do have some meaning for some people.
Distinguishing emergent phenomena from phenomena that are the result of outside input is useful. Saying life is an emergent phenomena means that you believe that there’s no intelligent designer. That’s something worth saying.
On the other hand it frequently happens that people use a term without fully understanding it or simply because they want to signal tribalism. Rational is probably the word that’s most often misused in that way on lesswrong.
The problem isn’t that the word “rational” has no meaning. It’s that people often use it without meaning anything in particular.
I think most words do have some meaning for some people.
Distinguishing emergent phenomena from phenomena that are the result of outside input is useful. Saying life is an emergent phenomena means that you believe that there’s no intelligent designer. That’s something worth saying.
On the other hand it frequently happens that people use a term without fully understanding it or simply because they want to signal tribalism. Rational is probably the word that’s most often misused in that way on lesswrong.
The problem isn’t that the word “rational” has no meaning. It’s that people often use it without meaning anything in particular.