Analetheism

Human beings are rational beings, yes. But what does this mean? It is natural to assume that it means something good: that we are logical in our thinking and hence feeling and behavior. But clearly human beings are far from rational in this sense. Just read a book like Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow or Jonathan Haight’s The Righteous Mind to become disabused of that rosy view. I propose instead, therefore, that the primary meaning of our being rational is simply that we are always prepared to give reasons for our beliefs and feelings and actions. But those reasons can be good or bad ones, that is, logical or illogical. (They can also be good or bad based on the truth or plausibility or falseness or implausibility of the premises. Indeed sometimes people simply lie in their arguments.) A compromise view would be that we are capable of giving and accepting good reasons, even though mostly or often we don’t. This seems OK to me as a secondary meaning, but primarily, it see...

When I hear my neighbor’s leaf-blower, I wonder: What manner of beast is this? I don’t mean the beast that is roaring, but the beast that is using the blower. What kind of mind can motivate spending money to buy a gas-guzzling, noise- and other-polluting, obesity- and laziness-inducing machine, when simple raking is superior in all respects?  The same goes for littering. What kind of mind would motivate tossing the wrapper of a cheeseburger into the street or road when out walking or driving?  But then, what kind of mind would motivate buying a cheeseburger to begin with, when equally tasty and healthier plant-based alternatives that involve much less animal cruelty and killing are known to be available?  And how can people smoke? How can so many people not vote? Etc. ad inf.  These phenomena seem unfathomable to me. That is my feeling when I encounter them, anyway. Of course a little effort does enable me to fathom them to some degree. There are several main...