Hopefully many of you have checked out the recent post reviewing the book Textbook Rationality.

After that was done I thought it was time to reach out to the author (Ivan Phillips) for a chance to ask a few questions. I’m sharing the responses here in a Q+A format. The bold headers were my questions, and the non-header content below them are Ivan’s responses. Enjoy!

Q: What led up to the creation of your project RationalFuture.org?

After getting my doctorate in physics, I left academia and went into software development. However, I hung on to my passion for science and philosophy. In the 2000’s, I gave talks on science and reasoning to non-experts. Around 2010 a couple of things happened that shook me up, intellectually. First, I began reading books on cognitive bias. The first of these was Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. I started to recognize biases and rationalization at the edge of my own consciousness. It was like seeing a monster out of the corner of my eye. I rapidly became much more humble in making assessments.

The second thing that happened was a chance meeting with Eliezer Yudkowsky. Eliezer introduced me to Bayesianism. He made a simple argument about uncertainty, and a few days later I had to agree that he was correct. I had heard of Bayesian filters in software applications, but I had no idea that Bayesian reasoning was a plausible ideal of rationality.

These two things in combination were shocking to me. How could I have earned a PhD in physics and not been taught about either cognitive bias or Bayesian rationality?

I realized that both fields were developed in the latter part of the 20th century, and simply had not trickled down into public consciousness. I founded The Rational Future Institute as a vehicle to promote these ideas, and have given numerous talks on rationality in the Chicago area. Alas, the RFI is still a side project for me – I have not had as much time or talent to devote to the non-profit as I had hoped. Still, I think momentum is growing, and we will see what 2021 brings.

Q: How long has Textbook Rationality itself been in the works?

Embarrassingly, about 8 years. If I were more rational, I would have hired a writer. Instead, I spent a lot of time rewriting pieces and learning on the job. Still, I am very happy with the final product. I celebrated my book release in socially distanced fashion, but am determined to celebrate several more times before the year is out!

Q: I am excited about the idea of primary and secondary schools infusing rationality either as a standalone course, or throughout many subjects. But I am also pessimistic about the difficulty of realizing it.  This change seems unlikely to happen top-down, and I have never heard of bottom-up change in curricula at schools. Do you have any thoughts about how rationalists might make progress in integrating rationality into our education system?

I can only speculate. I am not a teacher, and I likely have little appreciation for the technical and political hurdles involved. However, there are many teachers who are passionate and eager to experiment.

I have been working on some lesson plans – presumably, if there are ready-made materials, that will make it easier for teacher to adopt the syllabus.

Corporate training is another possible motivator. If businesses see value in rationality, they might not only teach it but give motivation to the K-12 system to integrate the topics into the curriculum.

Q: Related to the last question, are you aware of any education systems elsewhere, perhaps even individual schools, who do have “real” rationality education?

I know of one experimental project starting in Germany in the fall.

Though it falls short of a full rationality course, the International Baccalaureate program has an Theory of Knowledge course: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_knowledge_(IB_course)

Q: Do you have any special advice for the readers of my blog who may choose careers in education?

I am not an educator, so I do not have any specific career advice for educators.

I do think that rationality topics would find their way into K-12 education if teachers were familiar with rationality topics. It occurred to me that my teachers and professors failed to teach me about rationality because none of them knew anything about it themselves. Had they know about Bayesian rationality and cognitive bias, they surely would have injected these topics into their lesson plans somehow.

(That’s all!)

To make this self-contained, this is Ivan’s book that is discussed above. You can also check out Ivan’s site: RationalFuture.org for more material on applying and elevating rational thinking into everyday life.