a.k.a. reason, devotion to the truth, good faith reasoning
Complementary virtues¶
- most of the intellectual virtues
- honesty
- intellectual humility
- careful evaluation of evidence: science / induction / probability / inference / understanding selection biases / guarding against deceptive use of statistics / deduction / logic
Contrasting vices¶
- bad faith
- irrationality
- motivated reasoning
- wishful thinking
Virtues possibly in tension¶
How to acquire or strengthen it¶
Denial of uncomfortable facts can be a coping strategy for dealing with stress. If you (over-)use that strategy, you may want to try strengthening other coping strategies so you can reduce your reliance on denial.
Notes and links¶
- Good textbook with exercises to help improve rationality, deduction, induction, devotion to truth
- Free introductory textbook on inductive reasoning / probability / statistics
- See also: The Rationality Dojo (and Yudkowski’s virtues of rationality)
- A rationality checklist/quiz
- Skills You Need: Critical Thinking
- Intellectual Carefulness
- 18th C. philosopher William Wollaston put his entire ethical scheme (“natural religion”) on the foundation of truth — see sniggle.net/TPL/index5.php?entry=16Feb10 — he figured that once you followed this maxim, everything else would follow as a matter of course: “[E]very intelligent, active, and free being should so behave himself, as by no act to contradict truth; or, that he should treat every thing as being what it is.”
- "Catastrophic thinking" makes situations out to be more threatening than they really are, and thus leads to increased stress and sometimes even self-fulfilling catastrophe. Albert Ellis did a lot of work in helping people more realistically evaluate stressful situations.
- Some of the best rationality essays (LessWrong)
Mentioned elsewhere¶
- Science/deduction is one of Aristotle’s virtues, see this link
- One of Ayn Rand’s "objectivist" virtues (along with productiveness & pride)
- One of The VIA Institute’s "Character Strengths" is Judgment/Critical Thinking
Inspirational quotes¶
- Karl Jaspers: “an aim of philosophy is patiently and unremittingly to sustain the vigilance of reason in the presence of failure and in the presence of that which seems alien to it.” (Way to Wisdom)
- “Truly a Thinking Man is the worst enemy the Prince of Darkness can have; every time such a one announces himself, I doubt not, there runs a shudder through the Nether Empire; and new Emissaries are trained, with new tactics, to, if possible, entrap him, and hoodwink and handcuff him.” ―Thomas Carlyle (Sartor Resartus)
- “…the majority of men do not think in order to know the truth, but in order to assure themselves that the life which they lead, and which is agreeable and habitual to them, is the one which coincides with the truth.” ―Tolstoy
- “Truth remains truth even if it hurts.” ―Euripides
- “In all debates, let truth be thy aim; not victory, or an unjust interest: and endeavor to gain, rather than to expose, thy antagonist.” ―William Penn
- “The way is not to uphold falsehood consciously in anything. Where one sees the beginning of falsehood — each in his own way — he will not cross the line into its gangrenous territory. Having made this resolve, we would perhaps be astounded to see how suddenly falsehood dies, so that what lies behind stands naked before the world.” -Alexander Solzhenitsyn (“Not to live by falsehood” a.k.a. “Live Not By Lies!”)
- “So convenient a thing to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.” ―Benjamin Franklin
- “A strategy for thinking clearly: Rather than trying to be right, assume you are wrong and try to be less wrong. Trying to be right has a tendency to devolve into protecting your beliefs. Trying to be less wrong has a tendency to prompt more questions and intellectual humility.” — James Clear
- “He who knows the truth is not equal to him who loves it, and he who loves it is not equal to him who delights in it.” (Analects of Confucius, VI.XVIII)
