#474 Andrew Norman - Mental Immunity; Reason, Critical Thinking, Beliefs, and Morality

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Dr. Andrew Norman teaches philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. He works on the conceptual and historical foundations of humanism. He has published widely on the nature of reason and the teaching of wisdom, and written books on critical thinking and the structure of dialogue. He is the author of Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think.

In this episode, we focus on Mental Immunity. We first get into what cognitive immunology is, and some aspects of how our cognition works, like epistemic vigilance, and the fact that our reasoning functions better in social contexts. We discuss how we determine that something is a “bad idea”. We also discuss what reason is, and how we can determine what a “reasonable belief” is. We talk about critical thinking, and ideological thinking. We then go into how we can justify holding beliefs that are not supported by the evidence, and the psychological benefits of “wrong” beliefs. We talk specifically about religion, the Enlightenment, and moral values. Finally, we discuss strategies to improve cognition, both individually and collectively, including the concept of “mind vaccine” and heard immunity.

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