The Parasitic Mind by Gad Saad

Despre dificultatea de a schimba opiniile cuiva 

Făcând referire la Dan Sperber și Hugo Mercier care au dezvoltat teoria argumentativă a raționamentului:

”(…) it might be difficult for people to alter their opinions even when faced with contrary evidence. They posit that our reasoning faculties did not necessarily evolve to seek truth but rather to convince ourselves and others in a battle of wits.

Given the apparent innate penchant for most people to engage in motivated reasoning (biased information processing to protect one’s beliefs, attitudes, or ideological positions), is it feasible to expect people to seek an objective truth?

As an optimistic realist, I’d like to think so.

Intellectual courage—or as I prefer to call it, testicular fortitude—is a necessary first step for anyone who wishes to participate in the battle of ideas.

But this is insufficient. All of the courage in the world is not going to sway anyone’s opinions if you do not possess mastery of the relevant information and the appropriate critical thinking skills to process such information.”

I just love the guy. O carte scrisă de cineva care are și cojones și informația relevantă și gândirea critică necesară to make a point. Și mai are ceva, un simț fantastic al umorului și o abordare no-nonsense, no-bullshit. Chapeau!