#self-deception — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #self-deception, aggregated by home.social.
-
We readily acknowledge in others an advantage in courage, in bodily strength, in experience, in agility, in beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to no one. And the arguments that come from simple natural reasoning in others, we think we would have found if we had merely glanced in that direction.
[Nous reconnoissons aysément és autres, l’advantage du courage, de la force corporelle, de l’experience, de la disposition, de la beauté: mais l’advantage du jugement; nous ne le cedons à personne: Et les raisons qui partent du simple discours naturel en autruy, il nous semble qu’il n’a tenu qu’à regarder de ce costé-là, que nous ne les ayons trouvees.]Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Frame (1943)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #blindspot #comparison #ego #intellect #intelligence #judgment #pride #reasoning #selfassessment #selfdeception #selfdelusion #vanity #wits
-
A quotation from Thomas Carlyle
The beginning of all is to have done with Falsity — to eschew Falsity as Death Eternal.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Journal (1870-06-23)More about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/10030…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #carlyle #thomascarlyle #deceit #deception #delusion #falseness #honesty #illusion #integrity #selfdeception #truth #untruth
-
It is important not to confuse nationalism with mere worship of success. The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him. Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also — since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself — unshakably certain of being in the right.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/45922/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #orwell #georgeorwell #ingroup #nationalism #nationalist #powerhungry #powerseeking #righteousness #selfdeceit #selfdeception #selfrighteousness #strength #takesides #takingsides #tribalism #usvsthem
-
A quotation from La Rochefoucauld
Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do.
[Il n’y a guère d’homme assez habile pour connoître tout le mal qu’il fait.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶269 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959), ¶269]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #denial #ego #evil #evildoer #harm #pride #selfawareness #selfcondemnation #selfcriticism #selfdeception #selfdoubt #selfjudgment #selfopinion #selfpolicing #selfrationalization #selfreproach #selfrighteousness #vanity #wrongdoing
-
Norman Vincent Peale wrote "The power of positive thinking." Trump internalised all of that and look how that's going.
Albert Camus talked about the benefits of being a pessimist in a famous essay.
I think I'd rather be on Team Camus imagining myself as a happy Sisyphus.
#Camus #PositiveMentalAttitude #Philosophy #SelfDeception #FakeItTillYouMakeIt #Narcissism #MoralArguments #Manifesting
-
This is always the danger with propaganda, that it becomes at last more credible to its disseminators than to its targets.
Garry Wills (b. 1934) American author, journalist, historian
The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power, ch. 18 (1981)More about this quote: wist.info/wills-garry/4211/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #garrywills #foolingyourself #agitprop #belief #credibility #credulity #disinformation #lies #propaganda #selfdeception #spin #truth
-
“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero”*…
To the extent that evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist Robert Trivers has been in the news over the last decade, it has been for his entanglement with and highly-questionable defense of Jeffrey Epstein. But as Lionel Page reminds us, two decades before that– well before he could have known the execrable “financier”– Trivers made hugely important contributions to his field…
Steve Stewart-Williams announced… that Robert Trivers passed away.
Trivers was one of the most—perhaps the most—influential evolutionary biologists of the 20th century. His work should be much more widely known in social and behavioural sciences, in particular in economics, as Trivers’ intellectual approach is very much in line with a game theoretic understanding of social interactions.
It is hard to overstate the importance of his work. Einstein famously published four groundbreaking papers in 1905, a year often referred to as his “Annus mirabilis”, during which he revolutionised physics. Trivers might be said to have had a “Quinquennium Mirabile” for the five years between 1971 and 1976, during which he produced a series of ideas that revolutionised evolutionary biology…
[Page unpacks four of those contributions: Reciprocal Alturism, Parental Investment, Parental Offspring Conflict, and Self-Deception, each fascinating…]
… Trivers has been one of the most influential evolutionary biologists, and his papers are still worth reading today. His insights, published more than 50 years ago, are fascinating. They often align very well with economic theories of behaviour, and it is therefore regrettable that his ideas are not more well-known in economics, and in particular in behavioural economics.
A key feature of Trivers’ take across these contributions was to see that beneath the world of social interactions we observe, there are deep structures in terms of incentives that shape the game we play. Understanding these games and their structures helps us make sense of the seemingly endless complexity of human psychology and social dynamics. In several key contributions, Trivers helped lift the veil on the underlying logic of human behaviour…
From cooperation to conflict: the evolutionary grammar of social interactions: “The fascinating insights of Robert Trivers” from @lionelpage.bsky.social.
For more on Trivers and the controversies in his life (Epstein, but also the Black Panthers and a Rutgers set-to), all of which followed the burst of productivity described above, see here.
And for some thoughts on how one might reconcile appreciation for a scientist’s work with abhorence of his later sins, see “Ghosts of Science Past Still Haunt Us. We Can Put Them to Rest.“
* Bertolt Brecht (through the mouth of Galileo, in The Life of Galileo)
###
As we linger over legacies, we might send material birthday greetings to a man who helped lay the groundwork for the field to which Trivers contributed, Ludwig Büchner; he was born on this date in 1824. A philosopher, physiologist, and physician, he became one of the leading exponents of 19th-century scientific materialism. Büchner was an early champion of Darwin’s theory of evolution, endorsing it within a decade of its first issuance, then did much to spread it by citing and building on it in his own books.
As far as we know, Büchner’s life was free of the scandal and conflict that plagued Trivers. He taught at the University of Tübingen and published dozens of books and papers. Later in his life he founded he “German Freethinkers League” (“Deutsche Freidenkerbund”) and served as a member of the second chamber of the Landstände of the Grand Duchy of Hesse as a representative of the German Free-minded Party from 1884 to 1890. He was the younger brother of Georg Büchner, a famous revolutionary playwright, and Luise Büchner, a women’s rights advocate; and he was the uncle of Ernst Büchner, inventor of the Büchner flask.
#culture #Darwin #evolution #evolutionaryBiology #history #humanBehavior #LudwigBüchner #LudwigBuchner #Materialism #ParentalInvestment #ParentalOffspringConflict #Psychology #ReciprocalAlturism #RobertTrivers #Science #scientificMaterialism #SelfDeception #socialDynamics #sociobiology #theoryOfEvolution -
There is another kind of “glory”: conceiving too high an opinion of our worth. This is an undeserved feeling by which we value ourselves, and that makes us think ourselves different than we are, just as the passion of love lends beauties and graces to the object it embraces and makes those smitten by it — with their judgment blurred and altered — find what they love different, and more perfect, than it is.
[Il y a une autre sorte de gloire, qui est une trop bonne opinion, que nous concevons de nostre valeur. C’est un’affection inconsideree, dequoy nous nous cherissons, qui nous represente à nous mesmes, autres que nous ne sommes. Comme la passion amoureuse preste des beautez, & des graces, au subject qu’elle embrasse ; & fait que ceux qui en sont espris, trouvent d’un jugement trouble & alteré, ce qu’ils aiment, autre & plus parfait qu’il n’est.]Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #micheldemontaigne #ego #glory #pride #selfadmiration #selfapproval #selfassessment #selfdeception #selfdelusion #selfevaluation #selfglorification #selfimage #selflove #selfperception #selfregard #selfrighteousness #selfvalue #selfworth #vainglory #vanity #humility
-
A quotation from Christopher Marlowe
FAUSTUS: Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas;
“If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves, and there’s no truth in us.”
Why, then, belike we must sin,
And so consequently die.
Ay, we must die an everlasting death.Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 1, sc. 1 (sc. 1), l. 70ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)More about this quote: wist.info/marlowe-christopher/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #christophermarlowe #kitmarlowe #damnation #death #delusion #paragon #selfdeceit #selfdeception #sin #sinfulness
-
Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party. And I may be deceived as much as any of them, when I Say, that Power must never be trusted without a Check.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas JeffersonMore about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/34664/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #checksandbalances #conscience #emotion #intellect #power #regulation #restraint #selfdeception #selfdelusion #trust #abuseofpower #powercorrupts #bestintentions #selftrust #selfawareness
-
A quotation from La Rochefoucauld
If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could do us no harm.
[Si nous ne nous flattions point nous-mêmes, la flatterie des autres ne nous pourroit nuire.]François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶152 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #adulation #blandishment #flattery #praise #selfcongratulations #selfdeception #selfesteem #selfglorification #selfpraising #selfregard #sycophancy
-
Much of man’s thinking is propaganda of his appetites.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 261 (1955)More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/82357/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #appetite #desire #emotion #irrationality #passion #propaganda #selfdeception #selfdelusion #thinking #thought
-
A quotation from Samuel Johnson
To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1758-08-05), The Idler, No. 17More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/25830…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #criticism #deception #flaws #idleness #integrity #laziness #poverty #reproach #reputation #selfawareness #selfdeception #sloth
-
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 260 (1955)More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/19134/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichoffer #agitprop #belief #bias #confirmationbias #disinformation #prejudice #propaganda #selfdeception #selfjustification
-
A quotation from Samuel Johnson
Even the acquisition of knowledge is often much facilitated by the advantages of society: he that never compares his notions with those of others, readily acquiesces in his first thoughts, and very seldom discovers the objections which may be raised against his opinions; he, therefore, often thinks himself in possession of truth, when he is only fondling an errour long since exploded. He that has neither companions nor rivals in his studies, will always applaud his own progress, and think highly of his performances, because he knows not that others have equalled or excelled him. And I am afraid it may be added, that the student who withdraws himself from the world, will soon feel that ardour extinguished which praise or emulation had enkindled, and take the advantage of secrecy to sleep, rather than to labour.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126More about this quote: wist.info/johnson-samuel/81496…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #samueljohnson #study #studygroup #argument #collaboration #company #debate #education #error #interaction #isolation #learning #motivation #realitycheck #selfcongratulations #selfcontrol #selfcorrection #selfcriticism #selfdeception #selfdelusion #selfeducation #selfmotivation #selfpolicing #selfpraising #selfrationalization #selfrighteousness #selfsufficiency #society #solitude #truth
-
Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations, that they are individualists, that they have arrived at their opinions as the result of their own thinking — and that it just happens that their ideas are the same as those of the majority. The consensus of all serves as a proof for the correctness of “their” ideas.
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Art of Loving, ch. 2 (1956)More about this quote: wist.info/fromm-erich/80468/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #erichfromm #choice #conformity #consensus #following #individualism #majority #orthodoxy #selfawareness #selfdeception #selfdelusion
-
A quotation from Thomas Carlyle
The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-08), “The Hero as Prophet,” Home House, Portman Square, LondonMore about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/730/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thomascarlyle #ego #fault #flaw #ignorance #selfapproval #selfassurance #selfawareness #selfconsciousness #selfdeception #selfknowledge #selfrationalization #unawareness
-
A quotation from Thomas Carlyle
Self-deception once yielded to, all other deceptions follow naturally more and more.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, LondonMore info about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/22922…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thomascarlyle #deceit #deception #delusion #dishonesty #lies #selfdeception
-
Knaves and Hipocrates see through the Whole sistem at once. I will take the People their own way says one of these, I will serve them without Pay, I will give them money, I will make them beleive that I am perfectly disinterested untill I gain their Confidence and exite their enthusiasm. then I will Carry that Confidence and Enthusiasm to markett and will sell it for more than all I give them, and all their Pay would have amounted to — si populus vult decipi decipiatur [if the people want to be deceived, they will be deceived].
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter (1785-09-10) to John JebbMore info about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/80085/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #government #conartist #congame #confidence #deceit #deception #gifts #grift #profit #selfdeception #volunteer#wealthy
-
A quotation from Hannah Arendt
What stuck in the minds of these men who had become murderers was simply the notion of being involved in something historic, grandiose, unique (“a great task that occurs once in two thousand years”), which must therefore be difficult to bear. This was important, because the murderers were not sadists or killers by nature; on the contrary, a systematic effort was made to weed out all those who derived physical pleasure from what they did. The troops of the Einsatzgruppen had been drafted from the Armed S.S., a military unit with hardly more crimes in its record than any ordinary unit of the German Army, and their commanders had been chosen by Heydrich from the S.S. élite with academic degrees. Hence the problem was how to overcome not so much their conscience as the animal pity by which all normal men are affected in the presence of physical suffering. The trick used by Himmler — who apparently was rather strongly afflicted by these instinctive reactions himself — was very simple and probably very effective; it consisted in turning these instincts around, as it were, in directing them toward the self. So that instead of saying: What horrible things I did to people!, the murderers would be able to say: What horrible things I had to watch in the pursuance of my duties, how heavily the task weighed upon my shoulders!
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, ch. 6 (1963)More info about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/13940/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #banalityofevil #burden #difficulty #duty #genocide #Holocaust #killer #murder #murderer #persuasion #pity #selfcenteredness #selfdeception #selfpity #task #selfjustification
-
A quotation from Wendell Berry
Surely the idea of a “limited war” is one of the most dangerously self-deceiving verbal gimmicks ever invented. For though war makes use of reason, as a weapon, it is not reasonable in nature. Its nature is the nature of pride and anger. It follows the brute logic of violent emotion, which points directly toward the use of the greatest available power.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Speech (1968-02-10), “A Statement Against the War in Vietnam,” Kentucky Conference on the War and the Draft, University of KentuckyMore info about this quote: wist.info/berry-wendell/79838/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #wendellberry #anger #brutality #ego #emotion #lethality #limitedwar #power #pride #selfdeception #unreasoning #violence #war #warfare #irrationality
-
A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
Marriage is a step so grave and decisive that it attracts light-headed, variable men by its very awfulness. They have been so tried among the inconstant squalls and currents, so often sailed for islands in the air or lain becalmed with burning heart, that they will risk all for solid ground below their feet. Desperate pilots, they run their sea-sick, weary bark upon the dashing rocks. It seems as if marriage were the royal road through life, and realised, on the instant, what we have all dreamed on summer Sundays when the bells ring, or at night when we cannot sleep for the desire of living. They think it will sober and change them. Like those who join a brotherhood, they fancy it needs but an act to be out of the coil and clamour for ever. But this is a wile of the devil’s. To the end, spring winds will sow disquietude, passing faces leave a regret behind them, and the whole world keep calling and calling in their ears. For marriage is like life in this — that it is a field of battle, and not a bed of roses.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1876-08), “Virginibus Puerisque, Part 1,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 34More info about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertlouisstevenson #dream #effort #marriage #matrimony #regret #romance #selfdeception #selfdelusion #selfhelp #selfimprovement #struggle #temptation
-
A quotation from Bertrand Russell
No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid, and, however unpleasant the truth may be, it is better to face it once for all, to get used to it, and to proceed to build your life in accordance with it.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 8 “Persecution Mania” (1930)More info about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/789…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #facefacts #facereality #integrity #meaningoflife #satisfaction #selfawareness #selfdeception
-
It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his cash flow depends on his not understanding it.
-- Paul Krugman