Anthropologists scramble to show that the Other’s beliefs aren’t irrational – they make sense and do good explanatory work ... in context. Therapists labor to point out the irrationality of beliefs – that they do not obey strict rules of logic or evidence.
Explicit beliefs are mostly attempts to justify or explain an intuition. Intuitions are the result of implicit processes in our mental basement. Explicit beliefs are interpretations of intuitions – for the benefit of an audience (anthropologist, psychologist, self).
If a proposition taps into our neurocognitive proclivities, it’s likely to be vivid, intuitive, plausible, and relatively easy to remember. The idea that there are weird but still person-like supernatural agents, who care about what we do, is one such proposition.
Oceans are my biggest worry. Covering 70% of the earth’s surface, oceans absorb a huge amount of CO2. A few chemical processes later and we have ocean acidification, scourge of coral reefs and who knows what else. We’re not sure what else, but such quick change will surely challenge the capacity of sea life to adapt. Evolution’s not used to working on such short time scales.
I once belonged to a cult where awareness, non-attachment and being present were highly valued and practiced. Being aware didn't protect against craziness, though: cult members observed the panorama as it unfolded in the moment and yet remained deluded fools...
If one acquires insight and loses attachment in conjunction with years of meditative practice, how much credit goes to the awareness and how much to the teachings that promote a specific worldview?
Growth in global GDP increases energy consumption in the near term but reduces GHG emissions over the longer term. Economic growth promotes urbanization, education of women, delay of childbearing, lower fertility rates, improved agricultural productivity, and technological innovation. ...
I would imagine that many people who commit criminal acts are victims of abusive caregiving, awful environments, or at least genetically-influenced traits that facilitate criminal behavior (e.g., impulsiveness, mental illness, substance abuse, cognitive impairments). As victims, should these offenders get special treatment in the criminal justice system?
In several posts I have supported a modest Basic Income Guarantee (BIG), with the proviso that it be sufficiently miserly not to disincentivize work or add to the federal budget.
Global population growth is not slowing down fast enough.
In a recent post I wrote how Vietnam’s stronger land tenure rights have contributed to reforestation in the countryside by giving smallholders a greater stake in maintaining their woodlands, which have economic value. But context is all: Secure property rights is not a cure-all for environmental degradation.
The Copenhagen Consensus Center does research on the costs and benefits of various policy approaches to global problems and provides information on which policy targets will do the most social good relative to their costs – acknowledging that factors other than cost/benefit ratios are also important.
How can we increase reforestation on this poor benighted planet? A good start is to see what lessons we can draw from places where reforestation has already happened naturally rather than as an intended result of deforestation policy.
Ideal # 4: Everyone has a right to 16 years of education Let the questions begin! Is there an age limit to this right? For instance, 30, 50, 70? How is the “right” realized? Through free tuition? Through a stipend? Is there a course/training load required to activate the right? Are there performance requirements to maintain the right? ...
Implicit beliefs are assumptions. To assume is not the same thing as believing something is the case. To assume is to take for granted. When I walk, I assume my feet will encounter resistance.
Beliefs are confident opinions about something. To feel confident about a belief requires that one entertain the belief. To entertain a belief is to entertain the possibility of it being untrue.
Here I am thinking about the type of beliefs much discussed in clinical psychology, such as the following “irrational” beliefs identified by Albert Ellis: It is a dire necessity for adult humans to be loved or approved by virtually every significant other person in their community. One absolutely must be competent, adequate and achieving in all important respects or else one is an inadequate, worthless person....
... anxiety and fear are more responses to the absence of comforting beliefs than the presence of uncomfortable beliefs.
What lets fear in is the uncertainty, not the belief. Uncertainty without the compensation of belief - that ultimately it will work out, that there is a secure harbor, despite the present confusion – creates a vacuum that is filled by alarm.
There is a time to give into temptations and a time to resist them. Whenever there’s a tug-of-war among competing goals, and you have to override one behavior or goal in favor of another, self-regulation is involved. Enjoying what the moment has to offer is a worthy goal. When to honor that goal is the question.