#rationality

People go funny in the head when talking about politics. The evolutionary reasons for this are so obvious as to be worth belaboring: In the ancestral environment, politics was a matter of life and death. And sex, and wealth, and allies, and reputation... When, today, you get into an argument about whether "we" ought to raise the minimum wage, you're executing adaptations for an ancestral environment where being on the wrong side of the argument could get you killed. Being on the right side of the argument could let you kill your hated rival! [...] Politics is an extension of war by other means. Arguments are soldiers. Once you know which side you're on, you must support all arguments of that side, and attack all arguments that appear to favor the enemy side; otherwise it's like stabbing your soldiers in the back—providing aid and comfort to the enemy. People who would be level-headed about evenhandedly weighing all sides of an issue in their professional life as scientists, can suddenly turn into slogan-chanting zombies when there's a Blue or Green position on an issue. ↗

— Eliezer Yudkowsky

#rationality #death

A bitter thing cannot be made sweet. The taste of anything can be changed. But poison cannot be changed into nectar. ↗

— B.R. Ambedkar

#human-nature #rationality #society #change

You have to choose your future regrets. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#future #life #philosophy-of-religion #rationality #wisdom

It considered trying to explain their error to them, but what would be the use? They would only go away with hurt feelings. You can't always expect people, or squirrels, to be rational. ↗

— Thomas M. Disch

#life #people #rationality #life

When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable. ↗

— René Descartes

#rationality #truth #wisdom #logic

To be against rationalization is not the same as to be opposed to reasoning. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#logic #rationalisation #reason #september- #iraq

I suppose if you look back to your early childhood you accept everything people tell you, and that includes a heavy dose of irrationality - you're told about tooth fairies and Father Christmas and things. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#accept #back #childhood #christmas #dose

Selfishness is a bad habit. That’s why I always rationally think through my decisions to act without regard for others. ↗

— Bauvard

#habit #rationality #selfishness #funny

Interestingly, human irrationality is a hot topic in economics at the moment. Behavioural economics it's called, on the cusp of economics and psychology. ↗

— Evan Davis

#called #cusp #economics #hot #human

I don't think you can rely on Iran. I don't think you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They dispatched Al Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They weren't stupid. There is an irrationality there, and there is madness in this method. ↗

— Benjamin Netanyahu

#bomb #dispatched #i #iran #irrationality