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Reason Seen More As a Weapon Than a Path To Truth

Posted by Soulskill on from the welcome-to-the-internet dept.

mdsolar writes with this excerpt from the NY Times: "For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth. Rationality allowed a solitary thinker to blaze a path to philosophical, moral and scientific enlightenment. Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely different purpose: to win arguments. Rationality, by this yardstick (and irrationality too, but we'll get to that) is nothing more or less than a servant of the hard-wired compulsion to triumph in the debating arena."

2 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Yep. by cpu6502 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Reasoning is used by males the same way tails are used by peacocks. It seems obvious (but then most discoveries are - like F=ma).

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    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  2. Re:Slashdot modding by cpu6502 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    >>>I'm a fan of the somewhat less predictable "funny" tag for busting up a flame war

    I think /. would be better with no point system at all. Same for web forums in general. I like the way BBS forums used to be, and still exist today on Usenet and Fidonet, where a post was simply a post with no additional tags or points attached to it.

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    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"