The Enigma of Reason

30 Oct 2021 02:15 - 16 Dec 2022 12:22
Open in Logseq
    • Book by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber that has an interesting, non-Rationalism view of reason. Rather than striving to attain objectivity, reason is inherently purposeful and interested. This seems pretty common-sensical I suppose, but in this context it's kind of radical.
    • In praise of negativity — Crooked Timber
      • This superficially looks to resemble the ‘overcoming bias’/’not wrong’ approaches to self-improvement that are popular on the Internet. But it ends up going in a very different direction: collective processes of improvement rather than individual efforts to remedy the irremediable. The ideal of the individual seeking to eliminate all sources of bias so that he (it is, usually, a he) can calmly consider everything from a neutral and dispassionate perspective is replaced by a Humean recognition that reason cannot readily be separated from the desires of the reasoner.