It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
1w ago
The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.
14h ago
1w ago
The peculiarity of the evidence of mathematics is that all the argument is on one side. There are no objections, and no answers to objections. But on every subject on which difference of opinion is possible, the truth depends on a balance of two sets of reasons.
2w ago
The multitude of men agree in this: that they equate thinking with reading, and spare themselves the trouble of thinking, because they are able to read. They thus very much resemble those who to escape from want have sold their heritage, and now hope to live by their wages from those who have acquired it.
2w ago
It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Decadence begins when questions are suppressed and we are left only with the comfort of old replies.
1mo ago
The care and intentionality is beside the point, and our confidence in such vigilance probably works against us in the long run. 'The teams using AI most carefully are the ones losing the ability to tell a good option from a merely safe one. The malformation doesn't skip the diligent. It recruits them.'
1mo ago
The demand for certainty is one which is natural to man, but is nevertheless an intellectual vice. So long as men are not trained to withhold judgment in the absence of evidence, they will be led astray by cocksure prophets.
1mo ago
To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them; and the pleasure of waking up is so much more beautiful than that of dreaming, that it must never be desired to have the eyes closed.
1mo ago
It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are based on evidence, not on authority or intuition.
1mo ago
The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
2mo ago
We are trained to read well-crafted sentences and intellectual sounding texts as the result of effortful human work and thus pay attention to these AI written comments when we see them. But there is often no human meaning there, these posts are just meaning-shaped attention vampires that take mental effort to decode and give you no equivalent understanding in return.
2mo ago
They didn't mention that they hadn't checked the authenticity of the emails from Shawn provided by Bridget. They were relying solely on the screenshots. And there is no evidence that they had looked into Bridget's past.
2mo ago
If we abandon introspection and critical thinking, we descend to an animal life—and that is unworthy of us as human beings.
3mo ago
It's all too easy to slip into doing a softball puff piece — fawning all over your guests and treating them like gurus dispensing wisdom from a mountain. This is an even easier trap for someone like Dwarkesh, who is very young and who is primarily known for interviewing people instead of for dispensing his own thoughts. So it's extremely impressive that he consistently avoids this trap — he always manages to challenge and provoke his subjects, rather than just letting them spout their usual talking points.
3mo ago
I think with as quickly as news breaks, and as short as everyones attention span is, we have never been more inundated with information, misinformation and content. Discernment is more important than its ever been.
3mo ago
The chief danger of our age is that all mankind should be sunk in a depression of the same kind, all held in the same mold by the oppressiveness of a system of thought in which there is neither criticism of life nor xiety about truth.
3mo ago
The faithful have been liberated from the responsibility of thinking for themselves. The bot now thinks for them.
3mo ago
These books force you to think critically about your own time and the future we're building together.
4mo ago
The purpose of an open mind, like an open mouth, is to close it on something solid.
4mo ago
The true function of philosophy is not to provide final answers, but to keep alive in us the sense of wonder at the world and our place in it.
4mo ago
It seems to me then, that a lot of supposed ethical issues lose a lot of their heat once you get your facts straight.
4mo ago
The purpose of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to close it on something solid.
4mo ago
The chief wonder of education is that it does not destroy the mind of the pupil at all. When one considers the usual methods of teaching, this is indeed extraordinary. Yet it does happen, and I should say that in nine cases out of ten it happens by accident.
4mo ago
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunnings achievements of science. The divorce of the two produces politicians without ideas and scientists without conscience.
4mo ago
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
5mo ago
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
5mo ago
Underscored — save the words that stop you in your tracks.
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