Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Reason Evolved to Win Arguments
It may be that the human capacity for reasoning developed as a tool to win arguments and debates, rather than as a path to find the truth, say researchers.
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It is specious reasoning that would have evolved as a result of the need to win debates. Clearly it has some evolutionary purpose - the "I am right because you are wrong" kind of reasoning employed by the likes of Congress, Teesta etc. Every logical fallacy is essentially a debating technique.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Logical_fallacies
Real reasoning would have evolved with the need to tackle real world problems. That is why Obama talks reasonably and acts unreasonably and that is fundamentally why the US economy is going down the toilet right now; because you've got talkers with specious reasoning dominating doers with real reasoning.
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