I think you're starting a few levels in already with some of your examples. Level 1 really should be the inchoate intuition that people have before they've thought consciously about a topic (or alternately, the position that ancient societies reflexively took on the topic when it first rose to attention).
So for example, the version of the blank slate idea you start Level 1 with is ahistorical; I'm confident that most Bronze Age cultures, if they thought about it at all, believed that gendered psychological dispositions were innate. Platonism and later versions of the blank slate idea were reactions against an existing intuition.
I’m honoured that you, as the kind of „owner“ of the theme, would not only read the whole post but even take time to comment! And yes, what I wrote about a blank-slate level 1 is unfortunate. I even considered editing the post now, but then refrained.
What I had in mind there was a belief that children‘s personalities are shaped by upbringing. I think this belief is widespread and natural, supported by correlations between parents and children that level 2 explains away as genetic. But I should have left the term „blank slate“, and certainly the gender issue, out of my description of the naive level 1.
Regarding inchoate intuition, „the surprising resilience of naive views“ that triggered my exploration referred more to „face value“ accepted by many people than to basic intuitions. (Or so I think now, but was surprised not to find the term in the post; instead, it appears in an older post, „the sack against the pie“.) While the two often together, intuitions can also be skeptical, which affects some of the example items.
Such as prestige media and „guru-teachers“. But the most interesting item in this respect may be the last one, altruism, one of those inspired by your LW post. If we consider a „status-aware“ intuition like „when someone behaves selflessly, that irritates me“ (cf. Aristides in IV.6 in Scott Alexander‘s new ACX post on Matt Yglesias as Nietzschean Superman), you might put that at the root level 1, next to or in fact even below the naive „when someone behaves selflessly, that is good and laudable“? (In your LW post, the latter kind of sentiment appears to be level 1, but that doesn‘t mean much as the projects are different in focus; mine was not about how to be rational.)
Thanks for the cite!
I think you're starting a few levels in already with some of your examples. Level 1 really should be the inchoate intuition that people have before they've thought consciously about a topic (or alternately, the position that ancient societies reflexively took on the topic when it first rose to attention).
So for example, the version of the blank slate idea you start Level 1 with is ahistorical; I'm confident that most Bronze Age cultures, if they thought about it at all, believed that gendered psychological dispositions were innate. Platonism and later versions of the blank slate idea were reactions against an existing intuition.
I’m honoured that you, as the kind of „owner“ of the theme, would not only read the whole post but even take time to comment! And yes, what I wrote about a blank-slate level 1 is unfortunate. I even considered editing the post now, but then refrained.
What I had in mind there was a belief that children‘s personalities are shaped by upbringing. I think this belief is widespread and natural, supported by correlations between parents and children that level 2 explains away as genetic. But I should have left the term „blank slate“, and certainly the gender issue, out of my description of the naive level 1.
Regarding inchoate intuition, „the surprising resilience of naive views“ that triggered my exploration referred more to „face value“ accepted by many people than to basic intuitions. (Or so I think now, but was surprised not to find the term in the post; instead, it appears in an older post, „the sack against the pie“.) While the two often together, intuitions can also be skeptical, which affects some of the example items.
Such as prestige media and „guru-teachers“. But the most interesting item in this respect may be the last one, altruism, one of those inspired by your LW post. If we consider a „status-aware“ intuition like „when someone behaves selflessly, that irritates me“ (cf. Aristides in IV.6 in Scott Alexander‘s new ACX post on Matt Yglesias as Nietzschean Superman), you might put that at the root level 1, next to or in fact even below the naive „when someone behaves selflessly, that is good and laudable“? (In your LW post, the latter kind of sentiment appears to be level 1, but that doesn‘t mean much as the projects are different in focus; mine was not about how to be rational.)