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Can Skeptics Fight Irrationality Without Succumbing To It?

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Brian B.
Can Skeptics Fight Irrationality Without Succumbing To It?

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We're currently hosting our discussions at Café Walnut, near the corner of 7th & Walnut in Olde City, just across the street from Washington Square Park. The cafe's entrance is below street level down some stairs, which can be confusing if it's your first time. Our group meets in the large room upstairs.

Since we're using the cafe's space, they ask that each person attending the meetup at least purchase a drink or snack. Please don't bring any food or drinks from outside. If you're hungry enough to eat a meal, they have more substantial fare such as salads, soups & sandwiches which are pretty good and their prices are reasonable.

The cafe is fairly easy to get to if you're using public transit. With SEPTA, take the Market-Frankford Line & get off at the 5th Street Station (corner of 5th & Market), and walk 2 blocks south on 5th and then turn right on Walnut Street and walk 2 blocks west. With PATCO, just get off at the 9th-10th & Locust stop and walk 3 blocks east & 1 block north. For those who are driving, parking in the neighborhood can be tough to find. If you can't find a spot on the street, I'd suggest parking in the Washington Square parking deck at 249 S 6th Street which is just a half block away.

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A NEW YEARS' REALITY CHECK: CAN THE SKEPTIC & RATIONALIST COMMUNITIES SUCCESSFULLY FIGHT DOGMATISM & TRIBALISM -- OR ARE THEY BECOMING DOGMATIC TRIBES IN THE PROCESS?

INTRODUCTION:

The beginning of a new year naturally lends itself to taking stock of what we've accomplished over the last year and setting goals for the year ahead. And for those of us who identify as members of the skeptic & rationalist communities, it's important to ask what we think our groups' goals should be and what we personally want to get out of our participation. There's a difference in these two groups' focuses - i.e. the skeptic movement has typically focused on teaching critical thinking and debunking irrational beliefs, whereas the newer rationalist community has focused more on trying to help its members improve their own thinking by recognizing logical fallacies & cognitive biases. However, it's easy to see how these two missions are compatible & complimentary, and if they've got even a moderately successful track record in achieving these goals, then for most of us that means it's worth participating in them.

But as just as many people who make New Years' resolutions end up abandoning them after a few months as they settle back into old habits, many well-intentioned groups gradually drift away from their goals without ever fully realizing it. So we should ask ourselves if meetup groups like this one actually help their members & society as a whole. Can the skeptic & rationalist communities actually help improve their members critical thinking skills and understanding of the philosophy of science? And can these movements also help improve the rationality & scientific literacy of society at large? If these movements are successful in gaining more adherents & spreading their message, could this translate into political action on climate change & a more robust approach to existential risk?

Or conversely, are the critics of the skeptic & rationalist communities right? Does the skeptic community merely teach a form of blind devotion to the scientific establishment? Is the rationalist community a "cult" that promotes a dubious mix of statistical mumbo-jumbo, cold-blooded utilitarianism and utopian science fiction fantasies?

Is the entire mission of improving society by making people more rational & less dogmatic a fool's errand? When we disabuse people of traditional religion & paranormal beliefs, does this inevitably leave them feeling empty & alienated and prone to succumbing to new forms of dogma & superstition, as the psychologist Clay Routledge argues? Is Andrew Sullivan right that our current period of high political polarization & bitter feuds between "political tribes" is caused in part by secularization?

It's a tall order, but this meetup will try to address all of these questions...

A NOTE ON MATERIAL FROM RELATED MEETUPS:

There's no assumption that people attending this meetup will remember things we've covered before, but I just thought I'd mention that we've covered some complimentary material in previous sessions...

Back in March of 2017, the Philly Political Agnostics hosted a meetup entitled "The Debate Over Scientism, Naïve Utilitarianism & Technocracy". This discussion addressed some arguments made by several prominent members of the skeptic & atheist communities like Sam Harris and Neil deGrasse Tyson that "science alone can determine morality" and that a rational society could determine the correct policies by merely looking at the weight of the evidence. We looked at articles by critics who argued this approach overlooks the "fact-value distinction" and the "epistemic horizon" that makes some forms of government planning impossible.
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/mwpxjmywfbxb/

In February of 2018, our group hosted a meetup entitled "Science Activism & Science Policy". We discussed how science fandom is an emotionally satisfying but often fruitless form of "expressive activism" and we contrasted it with a more evidence-based form of "instrumental activism" for advancing science. Note the links to Eliezer Yudkowsky's essay "Science as Attire" and Venkatesh Rao's essay "The Varieties of Scientific Experience" in the Introduction section. Yudkowsky & Rao are two of the prominent figures in the rationalist community, and they're aware of some of the problems of making "Science" into a form of identity politics.
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/246835989/

In July of 2018, our group hosted a meetup entitled "Is 'New Atheism' Declining or Evolving?" We addressed the common arguments that "atheism is just another religion" and "the New Atheists are fundamentalists" and we looked at how atheist advocacy & the public perception of atheism ties into broader trends in religious belief in the American populace. We also looked at how atheists has been recently split by the growing political divide and what this might mean for the future of atheism as a movement.
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/252679767/

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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the debates about the goals of the skeptic & rationalist communities and how they relate to the problems of irrationality, dogmatism & tribalism in our society. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles & watch all the videos prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 47 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. ASSESSING THE SKEPTICAL MOVEMENT:

  • ARE SELF-IDENTIFIED "SKEPTICS" JUST AS CLOSE-MINDED & PRONE TO MOTIVATED REASONING AS PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN THE PARANORMAL OR SUPERNATURAL?

  • IS SCIENTIFIC SKEPTICISM JUST A FORM OF "SCIENCE WORSHIP"? IF NOT, WHAT DISTINGUISHES OPEN-MINDED "SCIENCE CURIOSITY" FROM DOGMATIC FAITH IN THE SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENT?

  • DO INTRODUCING STUDENTS TO CONCEPTUAL TOOLS LIKE "RUSSEL'S TEAPOT" AND "HITCHEN'S RAZOR" IMPROVE THEIR GENERAL CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS?

  • ARE ATTEMPTS TO DEBUNK A PERSON'S IRRATIONAL BELIEFS DOOMED BY THE BACKFIRE EFFECT, OR CAN CERTAIN RHETORICAL TACTICS AVOID THIS?

  • DOES THE SKEPTIC MOVEMENT CONCENTRATE TOO MUCH OF ITS MEDIA EFFORTS ON "PREACHING TO THE CHOIR" INSTEAD OF OUTREACH?

1a) Bryan Dunning, "Who Is Closed Minded, the Skeptic or the Believer?" (video - 11:37 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSAUcEr6UyY

1b) Tali Sharot, "Facts Don't Win Fights: Here’s How to Cut Through Confirmation Bias" (video - 5:41 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyioZODhKbE

II. ASSESSING THE RATIONALIST COMMUNITY:

  • DOES THE FACT THAT MANY MEMBERS OF THE LESS WRONG FORUM ADMIRE THE FOUNDER, ELIEZER YUDKOWSKY, AND READ HIS "SEQUENCES" ESSAYS MEAN IT'S A "PERSONALITY CULT" WITH A "HOLY TEXT"?

  • DOES THE FACT THAT MANY MEMBERS OF THE RATIONALIST COMMUNITY ARE INTERESTED IN ASPECTS OF TRANSHUMANISM LIKE AI RESEARCH, MIND-UPLOADING, CRYONICS & EXISTENTIAL RISK MEANS THEY'VE ADOPTED A "RELIGIOUS" ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY?

  • IS RATIONALITY THE SAME AS IQ? IF NOT, HOW DOES IT DIFFER?

  • ARE SELF-IDENTIFIED "RATIONALISTS" JUST AS IRRATIONAL AS EVERYONE ELSE, OR CAN CONCEPTS LIKE BAYESIAN UPDATING TAUGHT AT SEMINARS LIKE CFAR ACTUALLY IMPROVE OVERALL RATIONALITY?

  • DOES BECOMING MORE RATIONAL MEAN SACRIFICING EMOTIONAL ENJOYMENT, OR IS THIS A MISCONCEPTION BASED ON A "VULCAN STRAWMAN" OF RATIONALISM?

  • WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YUDKOWSKY'S "SNEER CLUB" EXPLANATION FOR OPPONENTS OF RATIONALISM - I.E. PEOPLE WITH DARK TRIAD TRAITS CONGREGATE ONLINE TO PICK ON EASY TARGETS, SUCH AS ASPECTS OF "NERD CULTURE" LIKE RATIONALISM?

  • COULD SOME OF THE ATTACKS ON RATIONALISTS BE MOTIVATED BY POLITICAL TRIBALISM, I.E. AN EMERGING LIBERTARIAN-ISH "GREY TRIBE" (AS SCOTT ALEXANDER CALLS IT) OF RATIONALISTS BREAKING AWAY FROM THE LIBERAL-PROGRESSIVE "BLUE TRIBE"? IS THIS CONTRADICTED BY THE LESS WRONG & SSC SURVEYS THAT SHOW MOST MEMBERS ARE POLITICALLY LEFT-WING?

2a) Julia Galef, "What is 'rationality'?" (video - 6:58 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iloTS0wU9qM

2b) Robert Gross, "LessWrong / CFAR / MIRI / Eliezer Yudkowsky / Julia Galef / Skeptics?" (video - 12:06 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ku9b-fPa1s

III. THE SECULARIZATION THESIS & THE ALLEGED "CRISIS OF MEANINGLESSNESS":

  • HAVE HUMANS EVOLVED TO BE RELIGIOUS AND/OR SUPERSTITIOUS? IF SO, IS THIS A SIDE EFFECT OF OUR AGENCY DETECTION & PATTERN RECOGNITION ABILITIES OR A DIRECT RESULT OF SELECTION FOR PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR?

  • DO SOCIETIES GRADUALLY BECOME MORE SECULAR AS THEY INDUSTRIALIZE & MODERNIZE? IF SO, WHY?

  • ARE SOCIETIES WITH HIGHER LEVELS OF EDUCATION MORE SECULAR? ARE THEY ALSO LESS SUPERSTITIOUS?

  • ARE ATHEISTS & AGNOSTICS MORE OR LESS LIKELY TO ENDORSE PARANORMAL BELIEFS THAN THE RELIGIOUS?

  • ARE SECULAR SOCIETIES PLAGUED BY A "CRISIS OF MEANINGLESSNESS" OR ARE THEY HAPPIER THAN SOCIETIES WITH HIGHER RELIGIOSITY?

  1. Tom Gjelten, "Why Religion Is More Durable Than Commonly Thought In Modern Society" (podcast - 3:49 min.)
    https://www.npr.org/2017/04/28/525895389/why-religion-is-more-durable-than-we-thought-in-modern-society

IV. SECULARIZATION & POLITICAL TRIBALISM:

  • ARE THERE INNATE HUMAN TENDENCIES TOWARDS "TRIBALISM", I.E. ANIMOSITY TOWARDS OUTGROUPS? DO DIFFERENCES IN BELIEFS PLAY A ROLE IN THIS?

  • IS POLITICAL IDEOLOGY BEGINNING TO FILL THE PSYCHOLOGICAL VOID LEFT BY SECULARIZATION?

  • IS IT ACCURATE TO REFER TO THE ALT-RIGHT POPULISTS ON THE RIGHT & THE SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVISTS ON THE LEFT AS "SECULAR RELIGIONS"?

  • ARE THOSE WHO IDENTIFY AS ATHEIST, AGNOSTIC OR NON-RELIGIOUS MORE LIKELY TO BE POLITICALLY ACTIVE? IF NOT, DOES THIS DISPROVE THE IDEA THAT SECULARIZATION IS BEHIND OUR POLITICAL POLARIZATION?

  • WHAT PERCENTAGE OF DEMOCRATS ARE ATHEISTS/AGNOSTICS? COULD THE TENDENCY OF REPUBLICANS TO OVERESTIMATE THIS PERCENTAGE HAVE TO DO WITH SELECTION EFFECTS THAT LEAD THEM TO THINK THERE'S A LEFT-WING "WAR ON CHRISTIANITY"?

  1. Geoff Nunberg, "As Fissures Between Political Camps Grow, 'Tribalism' Emerges As The Word Of 2017" (podcast - 7:39 min.)
    https://www.npr.org/2017/12/06/568583263/as-fissures-between-political-camps-grow-tribalism-emerges-as-the-word-of-2017

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Skeptics In The Pub - Philly
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Cafe Walnut
703 Walnut Street · Philadelphia, PA
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