RE: What makes people irrational thinkers?
December 12, 2021 at 2:23 am
(This post was last modified: December 12, 2021 at 2:23 am by Belacqua.)
(December 12, 2021 at 1:04 am)Oldandeasilyconfused Wrote: That it collapsed at that time is clearly due to witchcraft"
Does Evans-Pritchard pass judgment on whether these people are "irrational thinkers" or not?
It seems to me that if a person grows up in a culture in which witchcraft is a typical explanation, then believing in it is not irrational. Internally self-consistent belief systems which form the basic metaphysics of your society are just things that rational people are likely to accept.
So if someone in a witchcraft metaphysics culture confronts something inexplicable, they assume it must have a witchcraft-based explanation. And if someone in a materialist metaphysics culture confronts something inexplicable, they will strongly believe that any explanation must be materialist -- or else insist that asking for an explanation is somehow invalid.
I'm reluctant to say that people from other cultures are irrational, just because they think differently than my culture.