Between the true believers and the outright sceptics, the more-or-less-convinced and the doubtful, lie those who aren’t prepared to buy it but think there’s something in it… “It” could be homeopathy, Russian grievances against Nato, vaccine scepticism, the paleo diet – pretty much anything that the mainstream rejects as bogus but which many others find alluring.
I think there’s something in “there’s something in it” thinking, but it is also perilous. “Is there anything in it?” is almost always a good question to ask. It’s easy to be too dismissive of ideas that challenge received opinion. I suspect that people who are most likely to say “I think there’s something in it” often highly value being open-minded and are very keen to find any reason not to dismiss any idea outright if they can. When they come across people confidently saying that it’s all nonsense (whatever “it” is) they see arrogance, over-confidence and closed minds.
If you do sincerely ask “Is there anything in it?” you’ll often find that the answer is “yes”. But that something is very often not anything close to a true belief or a fact held by proponents of the it.
Take homeopathy. (Whenever I write sceptically about this I lose a few sympathisers and get people writing to me explaining why it does work, often citing the 19th century London Cholera outbreak when death rates at the London Homeopathic Hospital were three times lower than those at the Middlesex Hospital. They should know that was because practices at the conventional hospitals at the time made things worse, not because the homeopathic one helped. See Ben Goldacre on this.) There is something in homeopathy – the same thing that is found in many alternative treatments that have zero pharmaceutical effects – the placebo effect and the benefits of being given time and attention by someone who treats you as a whole person. These can yield are genuine, tangible medical benefits. It’s just that nothing in the dilutions administered have anything to do with it.
Perhaps more interesting – if only because it’s a less well-worn example – are Russia’s grievances about NATO. There is something in this too: Russia under its present paranoid leadership sees NATO as an obstacle to it ambitions of establishing a greater Russia akin to the 9th-13th century state of Kievan Rus.
As with the homeopathy case, the “something in this” should not be confused with any justification of the false beliefs held by people who advocate that Russia has legitimate grievances. Understanding the misguided reasoning of those who see NATO as a threat is very different to accepting that they have understandable grounds for believing the threat is real.
This is a subtle but important difference. I’ve heard too many people admirably trying to “see things from Russia’s point of view” sliding from understanding why Putin might be paranoid to thinking that it isn’t paranoia at all, but justifiable fear. A similar unjustified move is thinking that NATO states could and should have seen that Putin would see any eastward expansion as an unjustified provocation and leaping to the conclusion that it was an unjustified provocation.
In both these cases, it is good to ask “is there something in it” and the answer is “yes”. If you understand that “yes” properly, you gain a better understanding of what is going on. But the danger is that you take the “yes” to mean that the people who support the point of view in question have a point, that there is some real truth in what they say. And because there isn’t, you end up being too sympathetic towards falsehoods and giving less weight to the competing truth.
This is another example of how a properly open mind is not the opposite of a closed one, but an Aristotelian mean between a mind that lets in too little or welcomes in too much. No one should want to be dismissive, but on reflection, some ideas are best dismissed.
News
I’m writing this on my “holiday” so please give me some slack if there are more typos than usual. (I’m not grumbling: freelance writers are never completely on holiday, but how can this be work when no one is paying me for it?)
My next online Café Philosophique discussion exclusively with supporters is tomorrow, May 29 at 8pm British Summer Time. Join now from £5 a month for this and myriad other benefits, for me as well as you.
I neglected to link to my primer on free will for Psyche. It’s a huge topic digested in a few thousand words. Everyone emailing me to say I haven’t considered x, y or z has been directed to my book Freedom Regained, where I have done my best to consider everything worth considering.
I was discussing judging other people on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sunday Morning with Cathy Macdonald a few weeks ago. Judge for yourself here.
I’ll be at the How the Light Gets In festival in Hay-on-Wye on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 June. Do say hello if you’re there.
I continue to host the Royal Institute of Philosophy podcast Thinking Hard and Slow, ‘Mind-expanding long-form philosophy talks and discussions that are both rigorous and accessible. Recorded live from our annual themed lecture series, special lectures and our big debate.’ The latest episodes are Mutual Guardianship and Hospitality with Tamara Albertini and Getting Good at Bad Emotions with Amy Olberding, which is probably my favourite, in part because I think it identifies a key gripe I have with the neo-Stoic revival. (We talk about this in the second, discussion part.)
A reminder that if you buy books online, you can avoid the tax-dodging giant and buy through my affiliate shop which gives 10% to independent bookshops and 10% to me.
On my radar
Holidays for me mean a chance to read things for the sake of it, not for research or work. Whether your a reader, writer or both, The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative by Vivian Gornick is an insightful and illuminating essay on the art of writing from a first person point of view. Ian Leslie’s Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together is a rare example of a genuinely good “smart thinking” book, even though (because?) stylistically it completely conforms to the conventions of the genre.
Other than that, my radar has mostly been picking up on Cornish pasties, cream teas and amazing landscapes.
TThat’s it for now. If you’d like to receive these fortnightly newsletters direct to your inbox, sign up below. Until next time, if nothing prevents, thanks for your interest.