Category Archives: Rationalism

Rubin, Boot, Koestler and Convert’s Syndrome…

Posted on December 14, 2018 by bsixsmith

Somewhere between adolescence and adulthood, or at least their formal boundaries, I became something of a proto-SJW, railing against sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and various other things that bore the suffixes “ism” and “obia”. (Not transphobia, as I recall. That … Continue reading →

Posted in Rationalism | 7 Comments

What is Scientism, And Why Is It Bad?

Posted on March 17, 2018 by bsixsmith

The charge of scientism is both unreflectively made and unreflectively dismissed; wielded by cranks and bores and brushed off by the smug and the superficial. Given this, its meaning, and its significance, is unclear. Some believe, indeed, that it has … Continue reading →

Posted in Rationalism, Scepticism, Science | 3 Comments

Frankly, Rationalists Should Be Less Aspirational…

Posted on April 9, 2017 by bsixsmith

Scott Alexander writes with some frustration on smug critics of the “rationalist” movement, who, for him, criticise its supposed utopianism and arrogance without acknowledging its efforts to avoid such errors. I think there is value in their attempts to objectively … Continue reading →

Posted in Rationalism, Scepticism, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

In Praise of Bias…

Posted on October 30, 2016 by bsixsmith

We sometimes talk as if “bias” is a bad thing. It can be. If I want to answer a purely factual question, for example, bias may be an impediment. Yet the fact that we are biased suggests that it has … Continue reading →

Posted in Rationalism, Scepticism | 2 Comments

More Fun With New Atheists…

Posted on October 12, 2016 by bsixsmith

More astonishingly unintentional new atheist humour comes from the biologist Jerry Coyne. Coyne is known for reviewing books he has not read and now attacks a conference that has yet to take place. Not only is Coyne’s hostile judgement based … Continue reading →

Posted in Rationalism, Religion, Scepticism, Science | 2 Comments

More on Middlebrow Epistemology…

Posted on October 4, 2016 by bsixsmith

A while ago I wrote on “middlebrow epistemology”… that form of argumentation that has the essential qualities of a pub argument – the factoids, the simplifications, the argumentum ad passiones – but decently covers them with a figleaf of rationality. … Continue reading →

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The Virtues of Staying Quiet…

Posted on June 12, 2016 by bsixsmith

“Whereof one cannot speak,” wrote Wittgenstein in Tractatus, “Thereof must one be silent.” The immediacy and excitement of social media and online journalism have encouraged people to ignore this and hold forth on everything. Mouthing off with insufficient knowledge of … Continue reading →

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On Middlebrow Epistemology…

Posted on June 10, 2016 by bsixsmith

The social critic Dwight Macdonald coined the term “Midcult”: a pejorative name for that middlebrow culture which, he claimed, apes mass culture, reproducing “the formula, the built-in reaction [and] the lack of any standard except popularity” but “decently covers them … Continue reading →

Posted in Rationalism, Rhetoric, Scepticism | 2 Comments

Nightmares of an Eminent Person…

Posted on July 1, 2015 by bsixsmith

Ray Monk’s biography of Bertrand Russell’s later life, The Ghosts of Madness, is among the most depressing books that I have ever read. For readers who think of Russell as the twinkly grandfather of liberal humanism it will come as … Continue reading →

Posted in Behaviour, Belief, Family, From the Archives, Rationalism, Reviews | 1 Comment