A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
The Church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness. Tyranny likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and superstition wants believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and subscribers.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
SciTechDaily: Are We Truly Rational? AI Challenges a Long-Held Scientific Belief…
Scientists have long studied how people and animals make decisions, often looking at how recent experiences and trial-and-error shape behavior... #technology #ai #rationality
In addition to the free audio paper and (corrected) #preprint above, this 2-factor account of reflection article now has a DOI. 
The journal's version: https://doi.org/10.5840/resphilosophica2711
The full issue: https://pdcnet.org/collection-anonymous/browse?fp=resphilosophica&fq=resphilosophica%2FVolume%2F8898%7C102%2F8997%7CIssue%3A+3%2F
Spinoza, the Dialectic of Reason, and the Critique of Instrumental Rationality
#Spinoza is not a #critic of #reason, but its greatest defender: he anticipates the #DialecticOfReason (#Adorno & #Horkheimer) by advocating for an immanent, liberating, and joyful #rationality. Unlike Ayn #Rand’s view, he does not reject reason, but seeks to save it from #domination and #utilitarianism. #philosophy The critique of reason by Adorno and Horkheimer in the Dialectic of …
Public Service Announcement
If someone wants you to NOT THINK, they are NOT YOUR FRIEND.
"Don't worry about it"
"It's inevitable"
"We don't have time for these meetings"
"You must decide now"
"This is above your pay-grade"
"Use an AI"
"It's not your problem"
"It is written"
"Meditation helps"
"I've always voted for that party"
"There is nothing you can do about it"
"Might as well live with it"
"There no budget for that"
@JewishConversations @philosophy
I am not sure that the construction of #epistemology automatically leads to a #theology, nor indeed that epistemology is important only for religious people. I would readily describe epistemology as the perfect example of #REASONance, a term we could use to recall the importance of the thought of Hartmut #Rosa and Silva Riviera #Cusicanqui who proposes a #Rationality, finally shared.
From #LLM research, turn-of-the-century #Rationality Wars, 20th-century #Pragmatism, and 19th-century #Economics, I argue for what I call Strategic Reflectivism, a view about the nature and norms of reasoning in both humans and machines.
Arden Hart confronting TRANSPHOBIA in the Secular Movement at the American Atheist National Convention last week in Minneapolis!
#Trans #TransRights #TERF #UK #US #Culture #Politics #Humanism #NewSkeptics #Atheists #Rationality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxOAh20qo84
Does awareness of intuition's fallibility help people avoid faulty intuitions?
#Teaching students #DualProcessTheory didn't help them avoid faulty intuitions about #physics problems.
Skepticism of alternative #medicine was predicted by better reflection test performance in two studies of people from the U.S. (N ≅ 1000).
Slightly moreso among those who cared more about #rationality (i.e., basing their beliefs on evidence and #logic).
I am driven by my emotions.
"Our opinions generally have emotional rather than intellectual roots, and indeed rationality largely functions as a post hoc justification. Our political opinions, ultimately, are what we feel about the world, not what we think about it. And in turn, our opinions about particular events have a lot to do with how we feel about the world in general. It’s not an exaggeration to say that most people’s views about the kind of things that happen today are extensions of concerns of their own ego. And consequently, invitations to change their minds because new facts emerge, or because old ideas are discredited by new evidence, are in fact a threat to the strength and even survival of that ego."
"But few people, especially those who have received a decent education, want to acknowledge that their views are based on emotion and not reason. They therefore try to argue".
“We’re stepping into the most pro-growth, pro-business, pro-American administration I’ve perhaps seen in my adult lifetime,” gushed the hedge fund manager Bill Ackman in December...
“You don’t get fired for being bullish, but you do get fired for being bearish on Wall Street,” said Berezin.
#finance #trade #tariffs #macroeconomics #Trumpism #collapse #psychology #groupthink #rationality #biases #logic #reasoning
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/opinion/trump-stock-market-wall-street.html
Is #rationality a normative or descriptive concept?
Kevin Reuter, Lucien Baumgartner, Michael Messerli "present the findings of a #corpusLinguistics study revealing that people commonly perceive the concept of rationality as normative."
