How can humans create within their own minds such an inconsistent amalgam of the rational and the irrational? The answer is self-deception. In fact, perhaps the most accurate and most useful definition of humans is that of "the self-deceiving animal." Deception, duplicity, sophistry, delusion and hypocrisy are foundational products of human nature in its "natural" untutored state. Rather than reducing these tendencies, most schooling and social influences redirect them, rendering them more sophisticated, more artful and more obscure.
To exacerbate this problem, not only are humans instinctively self-deceptive, they are naturally socio-centric as well. Every culture and society sees itself as special and as justified in all it's basic beliefs and practices, in all it's values and taboos.
Unfortunately there are an unlimited number of maneuvers one can make in camouflaging poor reasoning, making bad thinking look good and obscuring what is really going on in a situation. Furthermore, most people are hesitant to recognizing poor reasoning when it supports what they intensely believe. It is as if people subconsciously accept the premise, "all is fair in the scramble for power, wealth and status." Any argument, any consideration, any mental maneuver or construction that validates emotionally charged beliefs seems to the believe to be justified. The more intense the belief, the less likely that reason and evidence can dislodge it.
The human mind is often myopic, inflexible and conformist, while at the same time, highly skilled in self-deception and rationalization. People are by nature highly egocentric, highly socio-centric and wantonly self interested. Their goal is not truth but advantage. They have not acquired their beliefs through a rational process. They are highly resistant to rational critique.
Blind faith, fear, prejudice and self interest are primary organizers of much human thinking. Self delusion, in conjunction with lack of self command, characterize much human thinking. A highly compromised integrity is the result. If you point out a mistake in thinking to most persons, you may silence them momentarily. But most, like rubber bands that have momentarily been stretched and let go, will soon revert back to whatever it was they believed in the first place. It is for this reason that cultivation of intellectual virtues is so crucial to human development. Without long term transformation of the mind, little can be done to produce deeply honest thought. When challenged, the human mind operates from it's most primitive intellectual instincts.
Critical thinking enables us to take command of the abstractions we create in our own minds, the generalizations we make about the world and therefore, ultimately the quality of our reasoning.
There is a small group of people who, though intellectually skilled do not want to manipulate or control others. These are people who combine critical thought, fair mindedness, self-insight and a genuine desire to serve public good. They are sophisticated enough to recognize how self-serving people use their knowledge of human nature and command of rhetoric to pursue selfish ends. They are acutely aware of the phenomenon of mass society and of the machinery of mass persuasion and social control. Consequently, they are too insightful to be manipulated and to ethical to enjoy manipulating others. They have a vision of a better, more ethical world, which includes a realistic knowledge of how far we are from that world. They are practical in their effort to encourage movement from "what is" to "what might be." They gain insight by struggling with their own egocentric nature and coming to see, in deeper and deeper ways, their own involvement in irrational processes.
To exacerbate this problem, not only are humans instinctively self-deceptive, they are naturally socio-centric as well. Every culture and society sees itself as special and as justified in all it's basic beliefs and practices, in all it's values and taboos.
Unfortunately there are an unlimited number of maneuvers one can make in camouflaging poor reasoning, making bad thinking look good and obscuring what is really going on in a situation. Furthermore, most people are hesitant to recognizing poor reasoning when it supports what they intensely believe. It is as if people subconsciously accept the premise, "all is fair in the scramble for power, wealth and status." Any argument, any consideration, any mental maneuver or construction that validates emotionally charged beliefs seems to the believe to be justified. The more intense the belief, the less likely that reason and evidence can dislodge it.
The human mind is often myopic, inflexible and conformist, while at the same time, highly skilled in self-deception and rationalization. People are by nature highly egocentric, highly socio-centric and wantonly self interested. Their goal is not truth but advantage. They have not acquired their beliefs through a rational process. They are highly resistant to rational critique.
Blind faith, fear, prejudice and self interest are primary organizers of much human thinking. Self delusion, in conjunction with lack of self command, characterize much human thinking. A highly compromised integrity is the result. If you point out a mistake in thinking to most persons, you may silence them momentarily. But most, like rubber bands that have momentarily been stretched and let go, will soon revert back to whatever it was they believed in the first place. It is for this reason that cultivation of intellectual virtues is so crucial to human development. Without long term transformation of the mind, little can be done to produce deeply honest thought. When challenged, the human mind operates from it's most primitive intellectual instincts.
Critical thinking enables us to take command of the abstractions we create in our own minds, the generalizations we make about the world and therefore, ultimately the quality of our reasoning.
There is a small group of people who, though intellectually skilled do not want to manipulate or control others. These are people who combine critical thought, fair mindedness, self-insight and a genuine desire to serve public good. They are sophisticated enough to recognize how self-serving people use their knowledge of human nature and command of rhetoric to pursue selfish ends. They are acutely aware of the phenomenon of mass society and of the machinery of mass persuasion and social control. Consequently, they are too insightful to be manipulated and to ethical to enjoy manipulating others. They have a vision of a better, more ethical world, which includes a realistic knowledge of how far we are from that world. They are practical in their effort to encourage movement from "what is" to "what might be." They gain insight by struggling with their own egocentric nature and coming to see, in deeper and deeper ways, their own involvement in irrational processes.
