more on logical thinking - from Mother Jones

[podfish]

https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney

- including a quote from one of my favorite researchers:

to use an analogy offered by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt (https://people.virginia.edu/%7Ejdh6n/): We may think we're being scientists, but we're actually being lawyers (https://motherjones.com/files/emotional_dog_and_rational_tail.pdf)

the article points out that when analyzing arguments, we tend to find the ones leading to conclusions we share as more convincing. Taken to extremes, you could say that people can't really reach a decision on new facts - you have to already be right to know which side of an argument is correct. So that's a relief to me; it means I can tell I'm right without bothering to follow the argument.... or something along those lines. I guess you'll just have to read the article.

[Dixon]

Excellent article, podster. Sad but clearly true.

For several years in the 1990's, when the International Conference on Critical Thinking was held at Sonoma State University, I presented there on several topics. My most popular presentation was "Reasoning with Irrational People". I was gonna write a book about it, did quite a bit of research, but gave up on the idea when I admitted to myself that, no matter how we try, reasoning rarely changes peoples' minds. This bodes ill for the future of our species...

But hope springs eternal, I guess; I now find myself writing a monthly column (The Gospel According to Dixon in the Articles and Comments section) here on WaccoBB whereby I'm trying to inoculate the local New Age community with the basic principles of critical thinking. A fool's errand? Well, maybe it'll do some good, though I reckon those who most need to read my column will avoid it like the plague. C'est la vie...