Concept
Rationalist community
Overview
The rationalist community is a 21st-century movement that formed around a group of internet blogs, primarily LessWrong and Astral Codex Ten (formerly known as Slate Star Codex).
The movement initially gained prominence in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Its members seek to use rationality to avoid cognitive biases.
Common interests include probability, effective altruism, transhumanism, and mitigating existential risk from artificial general intelligence.
The borders of the rationalist community are blurry and subject to debate among the community and adjacent groups. Members who diverge from typical rationalist beliefs often self-describe as "rationalist-adjacent", "post-rationalist" (also known as "ingroup" and "TPOT", an acronym for "this part of Twitter") or "EA-adjacent".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
And the reasoning (speaking) soul, if it engages itself upon the sciences, its activity is called mind or intellect, and it is accordingly called speculative or theoretical mind: which I have already described. And if it engages itself upon overcoming blameworthy powers, that entice unto wrongdoing through their excess, unto folly through their abandonment, unto impetuosity through their agitation, unto cowardice…
Avicenna, A Compendium on the Soul
States what Rationalist community is.
Therefore they are called "intellectual beings": because even with ourselves the things which are instantly grasped by the mind are said to be understood [intelligi]; hence "intellect" is defined as the habit of first principles. But human souls which acquire knowledge of truth by the discursive method are called "rational"; and this comes of the feebleness of their intellectual light. For if they possessed the…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
States what Rationalist community is.
It starts from wholes and universals, and makes much of the unity of things. Empiricism starts from the parts, and makes of the whole a collection-is not averse therefore to calling itself pluralistic. Rationalism usually considers itself more religious than empiricism, but there is much to say about this claim, so I merely mention it. It is a true claim when the individual rationalist is what is called a man of…
William James, Pragmatism
States what Rationalist community is.
Related ideas
- Cult
- The Independent
- Anarchism
- Transhumanism
- The New York Times
- The New Yorker
- Effective altruism
- Cognitive bias
- Scientific racism
- Bayesian inference
- Humanities
- Rationality
- The New Atlantis (journal)
- LessWrong
- Slate Star Codex
- Timnit Gebru
Place in the tradition
Part of Rationalism.