Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, October 8, 2012

Reasons Matter

Jonathan Haidt says our reasons are often rationalizations, reinforcing our previously-formed "intuitions":
Among the most memorable scenes in movie history is Toto’s revelation that the thundering head of the Wizard of Oz is actually animated by a small man behind a curtain, who lamely says, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” Modern psychology has, to some extent, pulled the curtain back on human reasoning and shown it to be much less impressive than it sometimes pretends to be, and much more driven by the hidden force of intuition...
But that doesn't mean that intuitions are a good substitute for solid thinking. Up with philosophy!
...philosophers have the best norms for good thinking that I have ever encountered. When my work is critiqued by a philosopher I can be certain that he or she has read me carefully, including the footnotes, and will not turn me into a straw man. More than any other subculture I know, the philosophical community embodies the kinds of normative pressures for reason-giving and responsiveness to reasons that Allan Gibbard describes in “Wise Choices, Apt Feelings.” I wish such norms could be sprinkled into the water supply of Washington.
Jonathan Haidt: Reasons Do Matter - NYTimes.com

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