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prisenco 8 days ago

Are you so sure the 9/11 hijackers rejected reason?

Why Are So Many Terrorists Engineers?

https://archive.is/XA4zb

Self-described rationalists can and often do rationalize acts and beliefs that seem baldly irrational to others.

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cogman10 7 days ago | parent [-]

Here's the thing, the goals of the terrorists weren't irrational.

People confuse "rational" with "moral". Those aren't the same thing. You can perfectly rationally do something that is immoral with a bad goal.

For example, if you value your life above all others, then it would be perfectly rational to slaughter an orphanage if a more powerful entity made that your only choice for survival. Morally bad, rationally correct.

	▲	vintermann 6 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, there's no such thing as rationality except rationality towards a goal. But Big R Rationalists assume that if we were rational enough (in an exotic, goal-independent way nebulously called intelligence), we'd all agree on the goals. So basically there is no morality. No right or wrong, only smart or stupid, and guess who they think are the smart ones. And this isn't an original philosophy at all. Plato certainly believed it (and if you believe Plato, Socrates too). Norse pagans believed it. And everyone who believes it seem to sink into mystery religion, where you can get access to the secret wisdom if you talk to the right guy who's in the know.