Aside from the fact that his survey strikes me as somewhat glib, are we not back at the simple starting point that people believe what they want to believe? I’m reminded of Twain’s essay “Corn-Pone Opinions”. For example, “…hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics, or religion which he got otherwise than through his…
Aside from the fact that his survey strikes me as somewhat glib, are we not back at the simple starting point that people believe what they want to believe? I’m reminded of Twain’s essay “Corn-Pone Opinions”. For example, “…hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics, or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies.” Twain argues that our thinking is mostly conformed, rather than through cold calculation and analysis. He was speaking broadly of the general population, but often this assessment is valid for even so-called scholars. Charitably then, perhaps it isn’t dishonesty so much as it is simply unthinkable (literally) for a person entrenched and muddled by their priors and in-group.
Aside from the fact that his survey strikes me as somewhat glib, are we not back at the simple starting point that people believe what they want to believe? I’m reminded of Twain’s essay “Corn-Pone Opinions”. For example, “…hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics, or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies.” Twain argues that our thinking is mostly conformed, rather than through cold calculation and analysis. He was speaking broadly of the general population, but often this assessment is valid for even so-called scholars. Charitably then, perhaps it isn’t dishonesty so much as it is simply unthinkable (literally) for a person entrenched and muddled by their priors and in-group.