Psychology
Fools Think in Words (Skin in the Game)
> My lifetime motto is thatmathematicians think in (well, precisely defined and mapped) objects and relations, jurists and legal thinkers in constructs, logicians in maximally abstract operators, and…fools in words. Words have ambiguous meanings – this is bad for decision making.
My lifetime motto is thatmathematicians think in (well, precisely defined and mapped) objects and relations, jurists and legal thinkers in constructs, logicians in maximally abstract operators, and…fools in words.
Words have ambiguous meanings – this is bad for decision making. Philosophy was born out of the need for rigor in discourse – Socrates asked people what they thought they meant about what they said. This is in opposition to the sophist’s promotion of rhetoric.
Belief can be epistemic or procedural. Some beliefs are decorative, others are functional and aid in survival, while others are literal.
When one of these fundamentalists talks to a Christian, he is convinced that the Christian takes his own beliefs literally, while the Christian is convinced that the Salafi has the same oft-metaphorical concepts that he has, to be taken seriously but not literally—and, often, not very seriously. Religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and, to some extent Shiite Islam, evolved (or, rather, let their members evolve in developing a sophisticated society) precisely by moving away from the literal. The literal doesn’t leave any room for adaptation.
THE EVIDENCE
The idea of belief without sacrifice is new in history. The strength of a creed does not rest on the evidence of the power of its gods, but on how much skin in the game its worshippers have.
Love without sacrifice is theft (Procrustes). This applies to any form of love, particularly the love of God.
RELIGIOUS IN WORDS
An atheist is defined by their deeds, by how different their actions are from those of a theist, not his beliefs and other symbolic matters.
Let us take stock here. There are people who areatheists in actions, religious in words (most Orthodox and Catholic Christians)and others who arereligious in actions, religious in words (Salafi Islamists and suicide bombers)but I know of nobody who is atheist in both actions and words, completely devoid of rituals, respect for the dead, and superstitions (say a belief in economics, or in the miraculous powers of the mighty state and its institutions).
YARPP List
Related posts:
- Habit 1: Be Proactive (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
- Habit 4: Think Win-Win (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
- Rhonda Perciavalle Patrick (Tools of Titans)
- Rational about Rationality (Skin in the Game)
Keep Reading
Related Articles
Psychology
Chapter 7: The Military, Security, and Politics (Introduction to Middle East Politics)
### Nuclear Weapons In recent years, The US, UK, France, China, North Korea, and Russia have been trying to publicize their nuclear threshold, but Israel have denied being the first state in the Middle East to possess nuclear capabilities despite evidence to the contrary.
Psychology
Chapter 5: The Age of Show Business (Amusing Ourselves to Death)
# Chapter 5: The Age of Show Business The supra-ideology for all television conversation is entertainment. No matter what is depicted, the main presumption is that it is there for our amusement and pleasure.
Psychology
Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary (The 48 Laws of Power)
# Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary *Coriolanus* When it comes to speech, less is more, and more is less. Remaining silent or saying only few words makes you sound more profound and mysterious. People will respect you for it. But when you say too much, you will likely suffer the repercussions.
Psychology
How Does the Mind Work? (The Top Books in Cognitive Science)
**Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Science of the Mind – José Luis Bermúdez – 2010** A text that introduces Cognitive Science, with examples, illustrations, applications, cutting-edge research, and new developments.