Robin Hanson wrote:
> People talk a lot about their difficulty in committing to long term plans.
> They choose savings plans that they can't get out of. They take efforts to
> avoid being around tempting candy bars.
These look more like conflicting preferences to me than
"meta-rationality." But I'll agree that we see a fair amount of this.
> People talk a lot about various irrationalities
> that they might fall into and ways they try to compensate for that.
> People talk about realizing that each person tends to think highly of
> him/herself, and trying to compensate for that.
People "talk a lot" about this?! Maybe in a few odd sub-cultures. I
can't recall any family member every talking this way, for example.
Maybe you're meta-rational, but I can't think of anyone else who
resembles you in this way. :-)
--
Prof. Bryan Caplan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan
"[W]hen we attempt to prove by direct argument, what is really
self-evident, the reasoning will always be inconclusive; for it
will either take for granted the thing to be proved, or something
not more evident; and so, instead of giving strength to the
conclusion, will rather tempt those to doubt of it, who never
did so before."
-- Thomas Reid, _Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind_
