Comment by bawolff
4 days ago
Isn't this just the naturalistic fallacy?
Traditions can often encode good things, but they shouldn't be respected solely because they are tradition.
4 days ago
Isn't this just the naturalistic fallacy?
Traditions can often encode good things, but they shouldn't be respected solely because they are tradition.
I think the corollary is that they shouldn't be disrespected just because they may be outdated.
One needs to actually spend the time and effort to understand what value is potentially encoded in traditions before suggesting a replacement.
To be fair, the Rationalists _do_ accept the two-word rebuttal "Chesterton's Fence," in principle.
...though yes, in practice if your invoke or, they're fairly likely to explain in elaborate length why it doesn't apply here.
The verbosity and ability to rationalize let's you come up with reasons which makes sense to your in-group quickly, even if it isn't often grounded in reality. They're quicker to rationalize than understand.
well yes, that is what the word "merely" in the original quote means.