[Document Still In Progress]
Let’s start with what is rational thought? What does it mean to think rationally? We can gain some insight by describing what it means to think irrationally, to act or think without logic or to make outlandish claims that seem highly unlikely, thoughts or actions driven more by emotion than reason. So to think rationally is to think logically, and ultimately to apply the appropriate amount of belief to an idea or rationale. As human beings we can start where we all began, that is when we are just born into this world. We start off by acquiring information, our vision starts out blurry, unable to speak or walk. As we acquire information it starts become more organized…we start to discern shapes and lines which become objects, sounds become more distinct until we are able to mimic them, and our movements become more purposeful until we learn to crawl and walk [NEEDS CITATION]. When I studied Neuroscience at Stanford as an Undergrad we were actually building Neural Networks in an attempt to algorithmically simulate how the human brain acquires and learns information with a Connectionist approach that sees these skills as emergent as opposed to built in. A fun example of this is to look at a stereogram image which at first appears to be a random bunch of dots and as our brain takes in the information and starts to organize it an apparent 3d image will appear. So we build a mental model of the world based on the information we acquire. We all have different experiences growing up, how much we remember as we start to make sense of the world, but the one of the things we have in common is the thought that we all build a mental model of the world that we exist in [NEEDS CITATION], a sense of self. Our consciousness sits behind our two eyes, gathering in whatever we can perceive about the world and tries to make sense of it. We are information processing machines, in fact we are so dependent on sensory input that if we stay in a sensory deprivation tank long enough we will start to hallucinate our own input. [NEEDS CITATION] It is really our first belief, that we exist in a world where others exist…it’s the building block upon which everything else is built, and at most we can say that it is highly likely, given the complexity of the world around us, that it is true and we are not living in some virtual reality like the Matrix. As we grow up we are told things, observe things, read things and occasionally work something out for ourselves. In Descartes meditations he referred to this collection of beliefs we acquire as an apple basket. Descartes observed that some of them might be “rotten” and thus capable of infecting other beliefs, but the only way of discovering them was to throw out the whole lot, good and bad, and only place the apples, or ideas the in the “basket” of beliefs that are certain. [NEEDS CITATION] It makes sense if you think about it in terms of First Order Logic and derivations. Having a False Axiom will let you derive a false conclusion. Axioms are the foundation. They are supposed to always be true.
All that is to say having just one false premise can lead to a multitude of false conclusions. In practical terms lets say you believe that Santa exists, and therefore Santa’s magic exists, but if Santa does not exist then you cannot say whether Santa’s magic exists or not. Descartes basic argument for the existence of God was that he exists, and therefore there must be a creator, and that creator is God. Of course existence doesn’t imply any characteristics of a creator other then that they could create, and creation in this case seems to be a big bang at the beginning of the universe, at least according to all of our current scientific measurements and hypothesis. Not my area of expertise, but it seems plausible. I sometimes picture the universe as this ever exploding existence that expands from one big bang of until increasing entropy somehow expands into a new big bang that perhaps starts with new universal constants, a continuous and never-ending cycle of explosions. Just another blooming flower in God’s garden. No real proof for that other then the theory of the big bang and existence of entropy, but I like the symmetry, and THAT is what I think life is about, the search for answers, not pretending we already have them.
Rationality is applying the appropriate amount of belief to whether any given statement is true or not, and the best tool we have for assigning truth to a statement is science because science is tested knowledge.
Why we can trust in the scientific process. [Blog idea on the Scientific Process – Scientific Paper Submission, Scientific Paper Ranking (similarities to Google Page Rank), Peer Review, cases of Funding finding out information detrimental to the industry (Big Oil and Climate Change, Big Tobacco and Cancer Risks, Big Pharma and Opiate Addiction)]
Mankind can learn
It takes mankind time to learn new things and build knowledge
There does not appear to be a limit to what we can know scientifically (leap of faith that seems more likely every day)
If the Big Questions are Knowable and there is no limit to what Mankind can know, then we have to last long enough as a species in order to find these answers
[Need to illustrate the mathematical proof]
A = Humanity exists
B = Humanity appears to learn over time
C = The Big Questions are knowable
D = Given enough time everything that is possible becomes inevitable
(how this forms a rational foundation and gives us a pair of rose tinted glasses to view our actions through)
Our brains continuously process information, trying to organize it and make useful conclusions from all of that info and we can improve our ability to minimize bias and assign appropriate levels of belief to make healthier, more sustainable decisions for our lives and for our species.
Being Rational
There are many definitions of rationality. Oxford defines it as “the quality of being based on or in accordance with reason or logic.”, so lets narrow it down and give a practical definition for being rational. Rationality can be defined as assigning the appropriate amount of certainty to a particular belief based on the amount of scientific proof for that belief. Human beings are not naturally rational….we have to work hard at it and it seems like in recent years that certain segments of the population aren’t working very hard at it at all. I remember commenting on a friends post and asking “Where’s your link to the source that you are basing your opinion on?” He responded that people don’t do that these days, and he’s not wrong, but if you can’t supply a basis for your opinion and let others evaluate the source for themselves, then it’s just gossip.
human beings are information processing engines….we take in external and internal data and produce actions and a stream of consciousness…
we are not digital cameras….information is not stored directly…we process information…sight, sound, smell…forming edges, identifying objects and smells….creating representations in
our brains…through the firing of our neurons….we misidentify things all the time…optical illusions, phantom sights or sounds…magicians make a living taking advantage of the brain’s
quirks. Needless to say, although you can trust your senses to a certain degree, you have to take it all with a grain of salt. Rational thought is not a given, it is something we have to continuously strive for.
Pitfalls, confirmation bias, repeated lies, over simplification, racial bias, superstition, emotional investment, group think/mob mentality reinforcement, logical fallacies
Examples of being rational vs irrational.
Measuring rationality can seem a bit arbitrary, but we have a perfectly good measuring stick for the amount of belief we should assign a concept or belief called Science.
Being rational is assigning the appropriate amount of belief to any given concept based on the amount of scientific evidence available
Science is not about certainty, it is about probability.
Scientific Fact – Scientific Consensus – Some Scientific Proof – No Scientific Proof
highly likely – likely – unlikely – highly unlikely
Rational – mostly rational – questionably rational – irrational – fanatically irrational
Undigested Bits
[Many organized religions tell us they already have the answer to the Big Questions, but that they will never be scientifically knowable. They essentially present a version of reality that can’t be proven until after we die….picture it like a coin flip where they assure you it’s absolutely going to land on heads, but you won’t find out until you pass on to the other side and see if you guessed right.]