I agree with these recommendations, thanks for providing a resource one can conveniently link to. (I also thought I remembered a very similar post from a couple of years ago, but wasn’t able to find it. So maybe I made that up.)
I still remember an amusing instance of what you address in #3: A few years ago, an EA colleague implied that the metaphor “carving reality at its joint” was rationalist/LessWrong terminology. But in fact it’s commonly thought to be coined by Plato, and frequently used in academic philosophy.
Good example! And it makes me realise that perhaps I should’ve indicated that the scope of this post should be jargon in EA and the rationality community, as I think similar suggestions would be useful there too.
A post that feels somewhat relevant, though it’s not about jargon, is Less Wrong Rationality and Mainstream Philosophy. One quote from that: “Moreover, standard Less Wrong positions on philosophical matters have been standard positions in a movement within mainstream philosophy for half a century.”
(None of this is to deny that the EA and rationality communities are doing a lot of things excellently, and “punching well above their weight” in terms of insights had, concepts generated/collected/refined, good done, etc. It’s merely to deny a particularlyextreme view on EA/rationality’s originality, exceptionalism, etc.)
I agree with these recommendations, thanks for providing a resource one can conveniently link to. (I also thought I remembered a very similar post from a couple of years ago, but wasn’t able to find it. So maybe I made that up.)
I still remember an amusing instance of what you address in #3: A few years ago, an EA colleague implied that the metaphor “carving reality at its joint” was rationalist/LessWrong terminology. But in fact it’s commonly thought to be coined by Plato, and frequently used in academic philosophy.
Good example! And it makes me realise that perhaps I should’ve indicated that the scope of this post should be jargon in EA and the rationality community, as I think similar suggestions would be useful there too.
A post that feels somewhat relevant, though it’s not about jargon, is Less Wrong Rationality and Mainstream Philosophy. One quote from that: “Moreover, standard Less Wrong positions on philosophical matters have been standard positions in a movement within mainstream philosophy for half a century.”
(None of this is to deny that the EA and rationality communities are doing a lot of things excellently, and “punching well above their weight” in terms of insights had, concepts generated/collected/refined, good done, etc. It’s merely to deny a particularly extreme view on EA/rationality’s originality, exceptionalism, etc.)