Thomas Snouse

How Do You Know You Are Right? Thomas Snouse

A Renaissance of Rationality What do intellectual apathy and intellectual conservatism have to do with the concept of rightness? Just this: prior standards of rightness have been based on authority or legality. If you believe something is right because your professor, your lawyer, your congressman or your pastor has passionately told you so - you then react badly to ideas which challenge conventional wisdom. On the other hand, if you realize that we need to improve our way of solving social problems, then you should investigate new ideas no matter how radical they seem at first glance. This book applies the rigorous intellectual machinery of physics to the chaos of societal interactions -- with amazing results! It may be that instinctive opposition to new ideas is built into the human genome. It may be that the rare individuals who exhibit strong intellectual curiosity and intellectual honesty are freaks of nature. These are the people, however, who have consistently led the rest of us out of the cave and into lives of comfort and health. Won't you join us?