The application of reasoning to evaluate and improve our reasoning processes themselves. It's about identifying cognitive biases (like confirmation bias), understanding the limits of heuristics, and choosing the right reasoning tool for the problem. It's what you use when you realize your own argument is getting emotional, so you deliberately step back to assess the evidence more coldly. It's rationality's quality control department.
Example: "He was losing the debate, so he engaged meta-reason: 'Hold on, I'm getting defensive because my identity is tied to this view. Let me steel-man my opponent's argument instead.' He still lost, but he lost with intellectual integrity, which is its own weird nerd victory."
by Abzugal January 30, 2026
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