#rationality — Public Fediverse posts

The laws of logic are the foundation of rational thought, guiding us through complex arguments and helping us discern truth from falsehood. Ever wondered how these principles apply in everyday life? Let's explore how they shape our understanding of the world! #Logic #CriticalThinking #Philosophy #Rationality #Debate

The laws of logic are the backbone of rational thought. They help us navigate arguments, discern truth from falsehood, and understand the world around us. Ever wondered how these principles apply to everyday life? Let's discuss how logic shapes our decisions and beliefs! #Logic #CriticalThinking #Philosophy #Rationality #Debate

When it comes to financial decision making, what if many "rational" decisions aren't rational at all, just financially legible?

This post explores a trend I've dubbed Financial Derangement Syndrome.

Check it out: https://paulbrzeski.com/2026/07/23/financial-derangement-syndrome/

#FinancialDerangementSyndrome #LateStageCapitalism #Financialisation #BehaviouralEconomics #Rationality #SystemsThinking #EconomicReality

Liberals and the "market place of ideas", per Aamer Rahman: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IKICKcMU3MU

#debate #rationality #ethics #liberals #voteBlue #Democratic #DemocraticParty #values #morals #anger #humor #humour

A quotation from Twain

Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason. But they have to be obeyed; one may reason all around them until he is tired, but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]

More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/84115/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #twain #marktwain #gorky #thegorkyincident #custom #law #morality #obedience #penalty #publicmorals #publicopinion #punishment #rationality #reason #rightandwrong #scandal #socialconventions #taboo #tradition #transgression

I've got mixed emotions about Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks on anti-Enlightenment grounds.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/05/23/black-skin-white-masks-chapter-5/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

#philosophy #psychology #books #blog #podcast #blm #postenlightenment #enlightenment #reason #rationality #writing #reading #humancondition #decolonialism #history #choice #fanon #bookreview #language

Je m'accuse, on s'accuse – a reaction piece I published on Substack on the misguided moral outrage of LLMs.

👉 https://brywillis634737.substack.com/p/je-maccuse-on-saccuse

#philosophy #moraloutrage #rationality #freespeech #aiethics #llms #surveillancecapitalism #criticaltheory #scapegoating #blog #substack #podcast #aisafety #enlightenment #mythos #bigtech #airegulation #philosophyofmind #moralpanic #artificialintelligence

A quotation from Mark Twain

Laws are coldly reasoned out and established upon what the lawmakers believe to be a basis of right. But customs are not. Customs are not enacted, they grow gradually up, imperceptibly and unconsciously, like an oak from its seed. In the fullness of their strength they can stand up straight in front of a world of argument and reasoning and yield not an inch.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]

More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/84113/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marktwain #twain #thegorkyincident #custom #irrationality #law #morality #penalty #publicopinion #publicpolicy #punishment #rationality #scandal #socialconventions #taboo #tradition #transgression

The Rational Conclusion of Doomerism Is Violence

https://www.campbellramble.ai/p/the-rational-conclusion

#HackerNews #Doomerism #Violence #Rationality #Debate #Society

A message of "we will manage the decline slightly better than the other guys" simply does not inspire the kind of massive, grassroots mobilization required to overcome deeply entrenched, aggressive opposition from the billionaire interests in both parties.

Wrote @chadloder on 2026-04-10 at Bluesky

#liberals #voteBlue #DemocraticParty #values #morals #debate #rationality #faith #beliefs

A quotation from Doyle

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1890-02), “The Sign of the Four,” ch. 1 [Holmes], Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 45 (US) / 1 (UK)

More about this quote: wist.info/doyle-arthur-conan/8…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #doyle #arthurconandoyle #holmes #sherlockholmes #sherlock #detective #exactitude #rationality #romanticism

I've been putting off posting about my 5,000+ essay downloads in deference to more 'important' pieces, but since my weekend was occupied plotting a new story idea, I have space for a short celebratory piece. Hooray for me. 🥳

https://philosophics.blog/2026/04/06/celebration/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

The two favourites were 'Objectivity Is an Illusion' and 'Rational Ghosts: Why Enlightenment Democracy Was Built to Fail'. Follow the link.

#philosophy #essays #writing #reading #democracy #fiction #nonfiction #objectivity #rationality #celebrate

A quotation from Ben Edlund

THE TICK: And isn’t sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean, all of you get is one trick, rational thinking. But when you’re good and crazy, oohoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, the sky’s the limit!

Ben Edlund (b. 1968) American cartoonist, writer, producer
The Tick (cartoon), 02×09 “Ants in the Pants!” (1995-11-18) [w. Ralph Soll]

More about this quote: wist.info/edlund-ben/221/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #benedlund #thetick #mindset #potential #rationality #sanity #thought

#TrumpVirus #war (within & projected)

vs. #Peace #democracy #civilization #rationality #collaboration #diplomacy #WeThePeople #truth #brotherhood

A madman enabled by equally #evil #GQP Congress & #disinformation #media who seem not to see or care.

He is not America, not even at its worst.

He is not a normal human, much less someone fit to serve the people, including those in his #cult, who suffer too. :-(

A quotation from Bertrand Russell

Neither acquiescence in skepticism nor acquiescence in dogma is what education should produce. What it should produce is a belief that knowledge is attainable in a measure, though with difficulty; that much of what passes for knowledge at any given time is likely to be more or less mistaken, but that the mistakes can be rectified by care and industry. In acting upon our beliefs, we should be very cautious where a small error would mean disaster; nevertheless it is upon our beliefs that we must act. This state of mind is rather difficult: it requires a high degree of intellectual culture without emotional atrophy. But though difficult it is not impossible; it is in fact the scientific temper. Knowledge, like other good things, is difficult, but not impossible; the dogmatist forgets the difficulty, the skeptic denies the possibility. Both are mistaken, and their errors, when wide-spread, produce social disaster.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 1, ch. 2 “The Aims of Education” (1926)

More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/826…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #action #caution #dogma #dogmatism #education #knowledge #rationality #science #selfawareness #skeptic #skepticism #truthseeking #pedagogy

📉🤖 Oh, look! Another treatise on why #academia swapped out rational math for the lazy allure of "good enough" #AI. Apparently, #ImageNet and the irresistible siren call of not specifying goals have won over academia's finest. Way to go, Guy Freeman, for enlightening us on how to achieve #mediocrity in the most complex way possible. 🎓💡
https://gfrm.in/posts/why-decision-theory-lost/index.html #rationality #innovation #HackerNews #ngated

The #economics of avoided effort can be funny: we pay #money to outsource exercise ...and then pay again to do the exercise ourselves. Want more examples?

In this post, I elaborate, propose solutions, answer objections, etc.

I'm curious to know which of the experiments you have tried. How did it go? What surprised you?

https://byrdnick.com/archives/30547/cancel-your-gym-membership-and-uber-rides-lawn-services-dog-walker-etc

#rationality #exercise #health #productivity #timeManagement

First in a series where I ask Claude to analyse the Two Valleys parable from various perspectives.

https://philosophics.blog/2026/02/04/comrade-claude-1-anti-enlightenment/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social

Sure, you could have run the stories through yourself. In fact, you still can, but this was the start of my dialogue. I centre the dialogue on my anti-Enlightenment sentiments.

#philosophy #blog #podcast #ai #claudeai #generativeAI #dialogue #analysis #dialogue #Enlightenment #critique #justice #rationality #progress #consent #parable #perspective

A quotation from Ben Franklin

Hear Reason, or she’ll make you feel her.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1744 ed.)

More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/15…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #benfranklin #benjaminfranklin #poorrichard #poorrichardsalmanac #intelligence #objectivity #rationality #reality #reason #reasoning #sensibility #thinking #thought #goodsense

"Better a known rival than an unpredictable friend." - Futurist Jim Carroll

There's a lot of talk online about what happens when partnerships become unstable.

When one side of a partnership slides over the abyss of rationality, into a mindset of madness.

When what was once reliable becomes volatile, when the predictable becomes uncertain, and the rational, irrational.

And the lesson is that you have to pick your partners carefully.

Strategically.

Wisely.

With caution.

With due diligence.

With both eyes wide open and elbows up.

You'll never move forward if you keep trying to rely on a relationship that has become untenable.

Partnership involves predictable, rational action.

And when that disappears, so should the reliance on the partnership - because it becomes time to form new ones.

Those partnerships might involve choices that, in an old world, might not have made sense but, in a new world, demand attention.

That's simply reality!

----

Futurist Jim Carroll often speaks about the importance of organizations to develop the capability for 'fast partnerships.' He realizes it now applies to nations, too.

**#Partnership** **#Strategy** **#Alliances** **#Trust** **#Reliability** **#Choices** **#Change** **#Wisdom** **#Caution** **#Reality** **#Relationships** **#Stability** **#Leadership** **#Adaptation** **#NewWorld** **#DueDiligence** **#Rationality** **#Forward** **#Decisions** **#Resilience** **#Unpredictable** **#Strategic** **#Eyes** **#Elbows** **#Onwards**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2026/01/daily-inspiration-better-a-known-rival-than-an-unpredictable-friend/

The decisions you can't explain are often the ones you got right.

Pattern recognition vs. protocol compliance: why your most sophisticated computational resource is the one you've been trained to override.

🔗 https://kairos-prometheon.com/en/blog/2026-01-25-pattern-recognition/

#PatternRecognition #Intuition #DecisionMaking #Rationality #Sovereignty #Philosophy

Reality Happens Once. Facts Happen Many Times. After writing about 'The Trouble with Facts' yesterday, I realised that the polysemy of 'facts' introduces category errors. Not all facts are created equal.
👉 https://philosophics.blog/2026/01/23/reality-happens-once-facts-happen-many-times/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#philosophy #language #ontology #epistemology #facts #objectivity #cognition #perception #memory #law #evidence #polysemy #truth #podcast #blog #reasoning #rationality #causation

Failing to consider

Failing to consider second- and third-order consequences is the cause of a lot of painfully bad decisions, and it is especially deadly when the fist inferior option confirms your own biases. Never seize on the first available option, no matter how good it seems, before you’ve asked questions and explored.

~ Ray Dalio

slip:4a734.

Anything at all

It would be wrong for anything to stand between you and attaining goodness—as a rational being and a citizen. Anything at all: the applaus of the crowd, high office, wealth, or self-indulgence. All of them might seem to be compatible with it—for a while. But suddenly they control us and sweep us away.

~ Marcus Aurelius

slip:4a727.

Est provocationem

Today, I’m drawn to considering refinement of an idea I’ve mentioned a few times.

It’s clear to me that it’s impossible to be happy if my mind is unable to focus. Years ago, I regained my ability to intentionally focus, by disempowering the world—disabling as many as possible of the pathways for everything and everyone to actively grab my attention. Then I set about railing against everyone who has not yet regained their own ability to focus, (or perhaps, has never learned to focus.)

Internally, I often use an idea which I believe I stole from mathematical analysis. When facing some question, the idea is to find the largest contributor, and get a handle on that first; that’s the first-order item. Then find the next largest contributor, and get that second-order item sorted. And so on.

A few decades ago, the largest impediment to my being able to intentionally focus was external distraction. Having now sorted that first-order item, I can turn to the second-order item: Everyone’s inability to focus is polluting my attention. I remain easily distracted by others’ inability to focus.

Est provocationem!

ɕ

The arbiter of truth

What is the arbiter of truth? Some things might be unknowable, and some questions might be unanswerable. But for everything else, what is the arbiter of truth?

The really big questions— Why are we here? What’s the meaning of life? The really big questions may not have answers. But for everything else, what is the arbiter of truth?

How do you decide if you have the correct answer to a question?

How do you decide what to do next? You just finished something and time is marching on; what will you do with the next moment?

How do you decide what to not do? Suppose some topic interests you; how do you decide how much time you should spend on it?

Difficult questions, certainly. Can you think of any questions which are more important than these?

If not, what are you doing to work on finding answers to these questions?

ɕ