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I think about this a lot: If someone arrived at at conclusion through irrational means, what makes you think that a rational argument would change their mind?

I think about this a lot: If someone arrived at at conclusion through irrational means, what makes you think that a rational argument would change their mind? I'm convinced that rational thinking is often so unhelpful for survival that humans developed this massive set of patterns to recognize (read stereotypes and logical fallacies) in order to simply keep living. Now that we are starting to push the limits of our biology we run into these anti-patterns that arise.

bena 8y ago
It's not an uncommon conclusion. So common, it's been attributed to many famous thinkers over the years: You cannot reason a person out of a position they did not reason themselves into. Also, I would say you're not too far off with how we've developed. A lot of things that are useful for a more "primitive" species work against us now. Pareidolia just really messes with us now. Whereas before when the risk of being mauled by a predator was much more real, the fact that what you thought was a bear was really a funny shaped rock 9 times out of 10 will save you that 1 time it is a bear.