Are we in denial?
When we cannot say what would count as a denial of our beliefs, then we are in denial about our own rationality.
ReadTag: Reason & rationality
Should we talk to ourselves?
We should practise taking the role of the attentive listener and be prepared to talk back to ourselves, and be our own best critical friend.
ReadWhere does motivation come from?
The cult of reason did not prove to be as popular as the Catholicism it displaced. We should not be surprised. Unlike religion, rationality cannot tell us how to live. Reason gives us no reasons to act.
ReadShould you keep your options open?
In the physical sciences, a plethora of theories is often a sign of weakness, an admission that we haven’t yet worked out which is right. In ethical and political thinking, however, I suspect there is no such thing as one, all-encompassing true theory. Different models describe different aspects of the world but none captures them all.
ReadSuper excited
I say ‘very’ rather than ‘super’. I think mountains are awesome but simply having the right money for my waiter is not. I don’t think I’m amazing: I don’t even believe I should think that. In sunny Silicon Valley, this moderate British scepticism makes me feel churlish and cynical. It certainly has no place at Googleplex in Mountain View, California, where I found myself recently, among 250 ‘thought leaders’ – researchers, writers, educators, artists, policymakers, investors – gathered for the Sci Foo ‘unconference’…
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