“Rationality Dojo” is an Australian organization devoted to improving the quality of practical reasoning. It has some resemblance to the Society of the Free and Easy, in that it is a peer-supported, self-directed process of training and growing in virtues, though it seems to concentrate mainly on the intellectual virtues.
It considers itself to be part of a global rationality community (see e.g. The Center for Applied Rationality and LessWrong for more information about that community) that investigates cognitive biases, errors of reasoning, and other things that interfere with the clearness of our understanding of reality, and that tries to promote and cultivate habits of unbiased observation and sound thinking.
They have adopted the “Twelve Virtues of Rationality” from rationality community pioneer Eliezer S. Yudkowsky. These virtues are:
- curiosity
- relinquishment (which includes non attachment and open mindedness)
- lightness (surrender to the truth, careful evaluation of evidence)
- evenness (good-faith reasoning, good judgement)
- argument (rhetoric, listening, honesty, fairness)
- empiricism (foresight)
- simplicity (straightforwardness)
- humility (caution, preparation)
- perfectionism (ambition)
- precision
- scholarship (philomathy)
- the void
“The void” is a sort of setting-aside of all of the virtues the moment they get in the way of the main goal, which is to see reality clearly. It is a reminder that if rationality becomes dogmatic it can interfere with clear vision.
