MCA: Is there some optimistic message here about how given that we did develop reasoning for social reasons and that we're less gullible than some people might have us believe? Can we become even more reasonable by finding people we trust and letting them criticize us or something like that? MCA: I think it's likely that on the whole we tend to be a bit too conservative. There is a big benefit in just trusting people because then you learn more about, you know, whom to trust and who not to trust.
Here at the Mindscape Podcast, we are firmly pro-reason. But what does that mean, fundamentally and in practice? How did humanity come into the idea of not just doing things, but doing things for reasons? In this episode we talk with cognitive scientist Hugo Mercier about these issues. He is the co-author (with Dan Sperber) of The Enigma of Reason, about how the notion of reason came to be, and more recently author of Not Born Yesterday, about who we trust and what we believe. He argues that our main shortcoming is not being insufficiently skeptical of radical claims, but of being too skeptical of claims that don't fit our views.
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Hugo Mercier received a Ph.D. in cognitive sciences from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He is currently a Permanent CNRS Research Scientist at the Institut Jean Nicod, Paris. Among his awards are the Prime d’excellence from the CNRS.
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