This post succinctly encapsulates an entire category of reasoning error. It is one of the most eloquent refutations (via reductio) of rationalism I’ve seen. So let’s address it. Presumably (and I think this is safe given the source) this implicit criticism would also apply to other premodern religious societies, or even conservative subcultures today. So the real question is “what tools of thought would you need to know that traditional cultures are insane?” What do we mean by “insane”? Is it that these traditions make false factual claims? Granted. So what rules of thought would have enabled you to figure this out? If the answer is “this specific form of rationalism” then you would have also needed the meta-rules that would have enabled you to recognize that as the correct epistemology. As far as I can tell, the only way to build confidence in a theory of knowledge like that is to see it work better than its competitors. Had anyone seen this in 1500? Had bayesian rationalism had a lot of successes then? Did the language even exist in which it could have been articulated? If it had, what would you have been able to do with it? Give probability estimates as to whether a coin is biased after having seen n flips? Even then, it’ll depend on your prior for a biased vs unbiased coin. The fact is that formal reasoning doesn’t have a ton of utility outside of technologically advanced societies. You would have had no examples of people crushing it by thinking this way. If you wanted to be a blacksmith, just memorizing the rules of thumb would have been more effective than first principles reasoning. If, as I suspect, she means the *values* of these societies were/are insane, the prospect of thinking your way out of them is even more dubious. What would it mean for statements like “women should obey their husbands” to be false? If the claim is justified based on a holy text, you could perhaps reason your way out of believing the holy text is infallible, but these cultural norms generally exist for a long time before being codified in scripture. Religions document them more than they invent them. I don’t think that being really careful about deriving conclusions from your premises would automatically produce modern egalitarian morality even if you became an atheist, because your results will depend on your premises (or your priors). The basic problem is that new knowledge is not derived from first principles. It evolves. Aella is mistaking a state for a process. The kind of person who today becomes a bay area rationalist typically ended up believing very different things in the past, and will end up believing very different things in the future. Her question is equivalent to asking “what mutations would you have needed to grow a brain as an archaic slime mold?” Slime molds didn’t have the biological infrastructure to support brains, and wouldn’t have had much use for them.

Easily one of the greatest scenes of all time, not just in finance movies, but all movies

16-year-old violin prodigy Karolina Protsenko shreds 'Sweet Home Alabama' on the streets of LA! 🎻🔥 Her energy is unstoppable—Turn it up!!!

You saved your little brother. I wish you both all the happiness in the world. Many blessings and many memories. ❤️

“Friendship”

A woman aboard an Airbus A320 flight heard an unusual noise, like a barking dog, from the hydraulic system. She called her pilot boyfriend, who advised it was not normal. Panicking, she rushed to the emergency exit and tried to open it mid-flight.

The Police move in to arrest someone & find out he's an under cover police officer 🤣🤣

The moment Virgil Van Dijk was interviewed by someone he once played against. The interviewer had to give up on his football career following a bad injury… ‘As long as you’re happy, that’s the most important thing’.

Bro was absolutely destroyed but still carried himself with dignity

Idk who she is, but she nailed it. Protect this woman at all costs. Feminism is a SCAM. Yes. She does sound conservative. Ope.

😁❤️ Jose Mourinho decided to have some lunch with the young Benfica academy players! 🍽️🥙

Hilariously stupid post. The boyfriend just needs to watch his girlfriend sleeping and he'll soon discover if she has sleep apnea. Just absurd - no one that sleeps with an apnea sufferer can't tell - no one.

Two years ago, today. When Brazilian channel TV Globo caught this live: a young Fluminense fan's sashaying emotions - from despair to dizzy, delirious tears - as the 99th minute winning goal went in. ❤️

The area the attacks are taking place are 85% Muslim. Muslims are also being terrorised for not bending to Boko Haram. Do the maths - near parity death rate - but from 15% of the population? Over 5 times higher death rate for Christians

The dog is saying, ‘It was her!’ 😂😂😂

Kevin O’Leary DEMOLISHES CNN. I live for stuff like this.

Brooo😭😭😭 how she gon save his name like that?

I hope this makes your day as much as it made mine, Enjoy 😘

His soul literally left his body 🤣