How to Think More and Better (Summer Reading Group meeting #2)

The second meeting for the reading group of this book, we will focus on Parts 4 and 5 of the book covering the following:

PART FOUR: Cognitive Biases

11. Confirmation Bias
12. What Do You Know?
13. Along Comes the Internet
PART FIVE: Intellectual Self-Transformation
14. Mindcare
15. Mindcleaning
16. Mind Expansion
17. Portrait of a Thinker
18. An Invitation to Think

Please be sure to bring a lawn chair, as we will be sitting in a circle under a tree just past the sheltered area by the bathrooms. Hope to see some of you there.

Cheers,
Colin

**UPDATE: Summary and 6 questions to ponder for the second half of the book

*** please note this event now starts at 10am (not 2pm as it conflicts with Spain vs Argentina finals of World Cup)

Cognitive Biases: A tendency to overgeneralize is one of the mental shortcuts wired into our brains but make us prone to cognitive biases like the following:

Zero-sum bias- thinking that a gain to someone must come at the cost of a loss to another

Planning fallacy- underestimate how long it will take to do something

Confirmation bias- privilege info that affirms our pre-existing beliefs (but we ignore info that conflicts or challenge it).

How can we avoid these biases? Irvine argues we must be selective in how we gather information and evidence. Favour more credible sources (scientific journals) over more suspect ones (social media posts). Approach topics with an open (but not too open) vs closed mind.

Political ideologies
Question #1: There are a plurality of them. What are your favourite, and why? Liberalism? Feminism? Conservatism? Marxism? Environmentalism? Something else? How, if at all, has you allegiance to political ideologies changed over time?
During my twenties I oscillated from an anarchist and libertarian to a Marxist. I now consider myself something of “centrist” and tend to appropriate different political sensibilities depending on the issue in question. I tend to align with classical liberals on many topics (like toleration and free speech), feminist on others, and somewhat conservative on yet others (e.g. like fiscal spending- public policies should cost-effective vs predicated upon noble sentiments alone or dogma). And I remain neutral on many others topics/issues. I agree with Irvine that most political ideologies offer some sage insights (e.g. revealing ignored problems), but also have serious shortcomings (e.g. offering potential solutions that are not feasible or effective or fail to consider the broader range of concerns in the moral/political landscape).

Question #2: How do you feel when you converse with a person who holds very different political beliefs to you? Do you enjoy exploring why you disagree, or do you find it frustrating and try to avoid such discussions?
Question #3: Know-it-alls- what are your thoughts on this issue?

Belief vs knowledge (p. 174): two conditions must be met for a belief to count as knowledge: (1) the belief is true and (2) we have good reasons for believing it (vs making a guess)
Difference between being ignorant (I am ignorant about most details concerning geography), being mistaken (having a belief about something, but it was false) and being stupid (we have mistaken beliefs but remain confident they are true (despite contrary evidence)).

Selective stupidity (p. 179) involves a person who is, in general, eager to learn but goes out of their way to not learn about a particular topic (and gets annoyed by others who attempt to educate them).

Question #4 The Internet: what do you think are the pros and cons of the impact the internet has had on both your own knowledge and beliefs, and on society in general?

Question #5 : AI is also addressed in Chapter 13. What do you think its potential pros and cons might be on our ability to think critically?

Question #6: On the issue of “intellectual self-transformation”, how would you describe your own intellectual life? How have foundational beliefs you hold changed and evolved over time? And what were the main catalysts of such transformations? Engaging with particular people, travelling, the discovering of specific sources/bodies of knowledge?

For me, the 5 biggest catalysts of my intellectual development have been:

(1) formal schooling (from ages 4-29)
(2) exposure to an expanding range of scholarly information, first in philosophy and politics, and then in genetics, psychology and evolutionary biology
(3) teaching and interacting with thousands of students in about 10 different universities
(4) living nearly a decade outside of Canada (in 4 other countries)
(5) experiences from personal and family life.

Looking forward to the discussions!

Cheers,
Colin