The hope we might draw from history is that clear-eyed individuals can see beyond what is socially acceptable to what is morally right. If we get used to questioning even what is universally accepted, we might be able to avoid getting used to social norms that are well past their use-by date.
ReadHume understood that logic alone tells us nothing useful about how the world works and that the fundamental principles that underpin science cannot be given an objective justification. Yet he also understood that the proper use of reason was our only safeguard against pernicious superstition and false belief.
ReadOn Thursday the nation decides. Each one of us will be free to choose how or whether to vote. But if you’ve been paying any attention at all to the findings of modern psychology, you might doubt whether your vote is truly free at all. There is a mass of compelling evidence that all our choices, including our electoral ones, are strongly affected by myriad unconscious and often irrational factors…
ReadDistraction has many benefits. Shifting our conscious attention away from what we are working on can often lead to new insights or ideas. The very willingness to be distracted reflects a kind of openness to what is going on around us that is part of having a curious, inquiring mind. In contrast, I often find people who monomaniacally keep their focus on just one thing quite disturbing.
ReadDemanding too much security for our beliefs is to demand the impossible. We have to accept that what we believe might be false, what we do in good faith might be wrong, what we take to be most real might be an illusion. At the same time, we must do our best to get as close to the true, the good and the real as we can. Philosophically, we are always walking a tightrope, thinking without a safety net.
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