Personal Resources
Rationality
Articles/Essays/Op-eds
You’re Only as Smart as Your Emotions, David Brooks
the revolution in our understanding of emotion.
For thousands of years, it was common in Western thought to imagine that there was an eternal war between reason and our emotions. ... Modern neuroscience has delivered a body blow to this way of thinking.... Most of the time emotions guide reason and make us more rational. It’s an exaggeration, but maybe a forgivable one, to say that this is a turnabout to rival the Copernican Revolution in astronomy. [behind paywall] [Read More]
Why Is It So Hard to Be Rational? Joshua Rothman.
"The real challenge isn’t being right but knowing how wrong you might be. [. . .] The realities of rationality are humbling. Know things; want things; use what you know to get what you want. It sounds like a simple formula. But, in truth, it maps out a series of escalating challenges. In search of facts, we must make do with probabilities. Unable to know it all for ourselves, we must rely on others who care enough to know. We must act while we are still uncertain, and we must act in time—sometimes individually, but often together. For all this to happen, rationality is necessary, but not sufficient. Thinking straight is just part of the work."
Books
How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds, Alan Jacobs (2017).
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman.
(see review: “Humility and Rationality”)