New Philosophy Articles on Fridays!

 

Your Friday Phil

 

Perhaps you will agree with me, and perhaps you will not, but it seems to me that we humans, for all of our intelligence, are stupid animals.

We are much crueler and much vainer than we want to be. We are prone to accepting information that confirms what we already think, and prone to rejecting information that challenges the same. We have a hard time thinking about time spans longer than the duration of a human life. We sometimes see patterns where there are none, yet at other times miss conclusions that are staring us in the face. We can be misled as much by our perceived (or actual) intelligence as by our emotional responses. We often prefer to listen to the opinions and ideas of people who think like or resemble ourselves, rather than judging all opinions and ideas on their own merits or flaws.

So, in light of the immensity of our ignorance and errors, carefully, slowly, I would like to try every day (or at least on Fridays) to be a little bit less ignorant, and I hope you will join me.

 

Click here to browse Your Friday Phil articles by philosophical categories, topics, and philosophers discussed.

Or click here to skip to the most recent Friday Phil posts.