Adventures in Thought Space

The following is dedicated to my bestie, Bex, for that very fact as well as catalyzing some of the thinking that went into this article.      A lot can be learned from receiving poor advisement. In fact, much of extralogical reasoning comes from the lessons I learned from my advisors’ mistakes. Much of what remains comes from the advisees', including myself.    Most, if not all, the misconceptions discussed herein are “unidentified”: They aren’t necessarily things people truly believe, but enough of their unconscious’ do to impair their thinking. As ER often says, owing to a subconscious-dominate thinking organ, having a fully consistent belief set is a total impossibility, and whatever approximation can be realized never is. Few appreciate how much unidentified beliefs can wreak havoc on someone’s thinking.    Most advisory mistakes and misconceptions relate to general thinking and decision-making, which is covered in the rest of ER (see summary ER in...

  The following is the second edition of  The Epistemology of Irrationality , which has been removed. The two articles are very similar, but the current is longer, posits more signs of irrationality, and has additional theses.       The pinnacle of irrationality is the idea that a person could ever be fully rational. Thus, it could be said that a definition of irrationality is the failure to ask, “Am I irrational?”    Rationality, to whatever degree a human can possess it, is largely the ability to learn from mistakes and misconceptions (and/or success at doing so). This includes those of other people. All misconceptions should be considered irrational traits, however common or trivial. A person’s biology plays a major role in how they reason, and some people will manifest characteristic traits early. But in the end, no three- or four-year-old is rational; they gain rationality because they LEARN. To learn, one must ask the question—is this irrati...