"The capacity of the rational mind to deceive, manipulate, scheme, trick, falsify, minimize, mislead, betray, prevaricate, deny, omit, rationalize, bias, exaggerate and obscure is so endless, so remarkable, that centuries of pre-scientific thought, concentrating on clarifying the nature of moral endeavor, regarded it as positively demonic. This is not because of rationality itself, as a process. That process can produce clarity and progress. It is because rationality is subject to the single worst temptation - to raise what it knows now to the status of an absolute."
It also makes up stuff not recalled. Needs a complete picture, hence all the prisoners getting off when DNA evidence exonerated them when often convicted by eye witness testimony. The brain is amazing and fallable.
I hear eyewitness testimony is being used less and less these days, for just that reason!
@stinkeye_a That is good. When I was taking a neuropsychology class I partnered with a or else student to do a project and we picked that. I have been fascinated with neuroscience ever since. We watched all kinds of videos where info wasnt visible and we were sure it was and saw different things. So the false witness accounts may not even be intentional.
I love the thought process. I for one can identify with the descriptive word salad - I use it regularly when faced with having to vacuum, after I "manipulate, scheme, trick, falsify, minimize, mislead, betray, prevaricate, deny, omit, rationalize" I finally haul the evil machine outta the closet, put in my ear plugs, and git er done.
Seriously, after one has tried to over come all of that in the education process and STILL you have the batshit crazies like the evangelicals all you are left with is "Can't fix stupid" comedian Ron White.
Well Mr Jordon B Peterson did use the word rationality twice and rationalize once to define rationality.... Can't do that, that's a no-no
I don’t see where he claimed to be defining rationality. Care to elaborate?
100% verified, by the "prescientific thought" of the Buddhist and Dzogchen systems under which I study.
This is something that comes up a lot, actually.