RE: Changing ones mind about a subject
November 20, 2017 at 5:35 am
(This post was last modified: November 20, 2017 at 5:37 am by Edwardo Piet.)
This is definitely very true:
My bold.
Source: https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-...tes-lament
In my opinion when people do change their minds, they usually don't do it in the middle of a debate. In fact I've never seen that. I've never seen someone say "You win the debate your argument was valid and mine was invalid, you were right and I was wrong."
I've seen people apologize for something that isn't about being correct about something, but is instead about decency or conduct, and I've seen people admit a mistake that they say was accidental and unintended and they correct themselves. But since when does someone change their mind about their whole position in the middle of a debate or argument?
Have you EVER seen a theist or atheist who wasn't trolling and was being genuine lose or gain belief in God in a middle of a debate? No.
I think that people often in hindsight look back on people and arguments that have convinced them to change their mind but in reality those reasons might not be the real causes of what changed their mind. We are rationalizing beings, not rational beings, and I doubt anyone really knows the true causes of their behavior (and in fact science testifies to this), including belief. We're built to survive, not to be rational and even the most rational of us are probably far less rational than we think we are. As Sam Harris explains in this quote.
Sam Harris Wrote:I want to begin by reminding our readers—and myself—that exchanges like this aren’t necessarily pointless. Perhaps you need no encouragement on that front, but I’m afraid I do. In recent years, I have spent so much time debating scientists, philosophers, and other scholars that I’ve begun to doubt whether any smart person retains the ability to change his mind. This is one of the great scandals of intellectual life: The virtues of rational discourse are everywhere espoused, and yet witnessing someone relinquish a cherished opinion in real time is about as common as seeing a supernova explode overhead. The perpetual stalemate one encounters in public debates is annoying because it is so clearly the product of motivated reasoning, self-deception, and other failures of rationality—and yet we’ve grown to expect it on every topic, no matter how intelligent and well-intentioned the participants.
My bold.
Source: https://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-...tes-lament
In my opinion when people do change their minds, they usually don't do it in the middle of a debate. In fact I've never seen that. I've never seen someone say "You win the debate your argument was valid and mine was invalid, you were right and I was wrong."
I've seen people apologize for something that isn't about being correct about something, but is instead about decency or conduct, and I've seen people admit a mistake that they say was accidental and unintended and they correct themselves. But since when does someone change their mind about their whole position in the middle of a debate or argument?
Have you EVER seen a theist or atheist who wasn't trolling and was being genuine lose or gain belief in God in a middle of a debate? No.
I think that people often in hindsight look back on people and arguments that have convinced them to change their mind but in reality those reasons might not be the real causes of what changed their mind. We are rationalizing beings, not rational beings, and I doubt anyone really knows the true causes of their behavior (and in fact science testifies to this), including belief. We're built to survive, not to be rational and even the most rational of us are probably far less rational than we think we are. As Sam Harris explains in this quote.
